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Ministers to come from around the globe to discuss more sustainable and interlinked transport

Transport Ministers from around the world will gather in Geneva next week to discuss strategies to create more interconnected, efficient and sustainable transport systems at the 80th annual meeting of UNECE’s Inland Transport Committee (ITC). 


The ITC is a unique high-level policy-making body, which over the past 70 years has acted as an intergovernmental forum where member countries come together to develop tools and legal frameworks to create safe, affordable, and sustainable inland transport. The agreements forged through the ITC have had a global impact and are considered indispensable for developing efficient, harmonized and integrated, safe and sustainable pan-European transport systems.   


The 80th Annual session will draw 15 Transport Ministers and Deputy Ministers from the UNECE region, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as high-level participants from more than 50 countries and heads of key transport organizations. 


This year, the ITC will open with a policy segment on 20 February, focusing on “Intermodality: The key to sustainable transport and mobility”.  


With the need to accelerate progress towards the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creating policies and measures that promote efficient, clean, safe and affordable inland transport are of increasing priority.  


In this context, the seamless combination of different modes of transport for passengers and freight where the person or parcel can slip easily from one mode to the next - be it bus to train or truck to boat – can mean transport that is safer, more efficient, and often faster and less costly. 


The session will be opened by Ms Olga Algayerova, Executive Secretary of UNECE, who together with Mr. Umberto De Pretto, Secretary General, International Road Transport Union, and Mr. Jean Todt, United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Road Safety, will launch the new road safety policy making tool “SafeFITS”. 


Three thematic sessions will explore specific aspects of Intermodality, namely: 


• Intermodality leads to sustainability 


• Intermodal freight transport and connectivity 


• Intermodal passenger mobility 


The panels and subsequent discussions will be moderated by Mr. Young Tae Kim, Secretary- General of the International Transport Forum. 


The policy segment will take place on 20 February 2018, 11.00 - 18.00, Salle XII, Palais des Nations, Geneva, and is a public event.   


For more information, please visit: https://www.unece.org/trans/events/2018/itc80_2018.html

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