Unesco transport meet next month
Transport ministers and senior officials from across the Asia Pacific are expected to develop a comprehensive strategy to address the region's growing transport needs when they meet at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) Ministerial Conference on Transport from November 6-11 in Busan, South Korea.
The Ministers expect to formalise a vision for the development of the Asian transport sector that will include the establishment of an Asian Conference of Ministers of Transport, the signing of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network, and the issuing of two Ministerial Declarations. The meeting will be broken into two segments: the Senior Officials' Meeting from November 6-8 and the Ministerial Meeting from November 10-11. Ministers and senior officials from Unescap and associated organisations are expected to participate. The first ministerial declaration that will be issued at the conference, the Ministerial Declaration on Transport, will include a framework for the implementation of a "regional action programme". It is designed to set the direction of transport development in the Unescap region for the next five years. The second ministerial declaration will focus on improving road safety in Asia and the Pacific. Unescap estimates that by 2020 approximately 610,000 road deaths each year, representing two-thirds of the world's total, will occur in the Unescap region. Among the other emerging transport issues to be discussed are regional cooperation for development of an international, integrated, intermodal transport system in Asia; integrated facilitation measures for the smooth and efficient movement of goods and people; development of transport logistics; financing of transport infrastructure and public-private partnerships; and transportation and the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Other events being held by the Republic of Korea in connection with the Unescap conference include the Inter-national Transport and Logistics Fair 2006 from November 7-11 and the Asia-Pacific Business Forum 2006 on Tran-sport and Logistics from November 8-9. Headquartered in Bangkok, Unescap is the largest of the UN's five regional commissions. As the only inter-governmental forum covering the entire Asia-Pacific region, it aims to promote economic activity and social progress in the region's developing countries.
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