Ministerial Meeting

Ministerial Declaration

MINISTERIAL MEETING
Meeting with Mr. Ju Huang, Deputy Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, on the eve of the BBB caravan launch, 26 September 2005

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Speech by Mr Martin Marmy, IRU Secretary General

Your Excellency,

Please allow me to express - in the name of the 900 participants and first of all in the name of the 20 Ministers here present - our sincere gratitude to you, Mr Deputy Prime Minister, and through you to the Government of the People's Republic of China for having organised and hosted the 3rd IRU Euro-Asian Conference.

Our gratitude goes also to Mr Zhang Chunxian, Minister of Communications and to his Deputy Mr Feng Zhenglin for their permanent support for IRU and CRTA activities in favour of road transport.

The 3rd IRU Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference entitled 'Road Transport Bridging Asia and Europe" and the joint statement of the Euro-Asian Transport Ministerial Meeting which encourages the implementation of the United Nations conventions pertaining to the facilitation of road transport by removing non-physical barriers, fully embodies the vital role which road transport plays in promoting regional and Euro-Asian trade and above all in promoting friendship and cooperation among all the countries within this region, in Europe and in the rest of the world.

This is why we are all proud of this achievement and honoured by the welcome message of Mr LI XIANNIAN, President of the People's Republic of China, stating 'Revive Road Transport; Prosper National Economy". Such words are for each of us a new source of motivation.

Yesterday I learned a Chinese saying: to become rich you should first build a road. This is a perfect example of what China is doing now. Due to such government commitment, China is the fastest developing nation in Asia with the highest rate of economic growth.

The transport industry, and in particular road transport, has been instrumental to this growth, providing the most important and fundamental economic development.

By the wise decision of your Government to develop the road network and to link all cities with a population of over 200,000 by motorway by the year 2020, you are ensuring for future generations the well being of your country.

This is the first reason why we chose China as a venue for the
3rd Euro-Asian Conference. There were many other good reasons to choose China, including its recent accession to the WTO, which demonstrated another clear commitment by the Chinese Government to integrate Chinese trade into the world economy.

For all these reasons, in the last few years cooperation between the IRU, the Ministry of Communications of China and the CRTA has been very fruitful allowing us, in full friendship and collaboration, to successfully prepare and organise this high-level international conference.

By doing so, we have been working successfully in a full public-private partnership which is one of the corner stones of IRU's philosophy. There is one old proverb: "the flag follows trade", which means that international trade lays the ground for successful political and social relations between countries. But today it is the truck that carries trade on its wheels, driving progress. That's why it is impossible to underestimate the role of road transport which has been fully understood by the Chinese Government.

To conclude, in the name of all those present here, I would like to express once more our thanks and gratitude for the great attention which has been paid to this historic conference and to the launch of the Beijing-Berlin-Brussels truck caravan which will demonstrate that the 2000 year old Silk Road has been reopened. Finally, and in full friendship, let me emphasise that it is only 'by working together that we will have a better future".

In partnership with the China Road Transport Association (CRTA)

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