Madam Chairman, Distinguished
Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to welcome
you to the sixty-fifth session of the Inland
Transport Committee. This is the first time
that I have opened the session of the Committee
and it is a great pleasure for me. This
Committee has achieved useful results in
the inland transport sector for the benefit
not only of UNECE member countries, but
also for many other countries around the
world.
I note that, during the
current session, Mrs. Tãnase will
chair the Committee for the last time. Mrs.
Tãnase has since 2001 successfully
steered your discussions through the multiple
currents of international transport regulatory
problems. With her Chairmanship, I am confident
that you are in a position to reach concrete
and useful results also at this session.
For more than a half a
century, this body has contributed to the
development and improvement of the transport
sector in the UNECE region. Your predecessors
in this Committee and yourselves have invested
great effort to create a safer, more efficient,
more harmonized and sustainable transport
sector. The contribution of the ITC to the
development of the transport sector in the
UNECE region is highly appreciated. It includes
contribution to the development of networks
and projects like TEM/TER, norms and standards
in road traffic safety, harmonization of
vehicle regulations, conventions to facilitate
customs procedures norms in transport of
dangerous goods, etc. I would like to underline
that much of this work contributes to the
implementation of the Millennium Declaration
and Millennium Development Goals. Transport
is among the key underlying factors for
most of the objectives of the Millennium
Declaration. By providing an indispensable
basis for the development of economic activities,
for the production and distribution of goods
as well as for trade, transport contributes
to development and poverty eradication.
By combating trans-national crime, including
trafficking and smuggling, you contribute
to peace and security. Through improving
the safety and environmental performance
of transport, you contribute to protecting
our common environment and also the vulnerable.
I would like to call upon
you to take better account of the Millennium
Declaration's goals in your work. In each
of the areas, it is up to you to articulate
the linkages and to ensure that transport
provides the needed inputs within a comprehensive
programme of actions. In particular, I consider
it important that, as specifically called
for in the Millennium Declaration, the Committee
recognizes the special development needs
and problems of landlocked countries and
other countries with economies in transition
and helps them to improve their transport
systems in order to overcome the impediments
of geography.
Looking at your Provisional
Agenda, I see that you will consider a wide
array of issues, some of which are related
to the work of the Committee as a whole
and many others that are related to the
work of the Committee's subsidiary bodies.
Among the first category,
you will consider the outcome of the fifty-seventh
session of the Commission that took place
in May last year. There you will note, among
others, the questions related to the strengthening
of the Organization. In this respect, I
wish to stress that our Member Governments
are increasingly demanding from us to become
more efficient, more results oriented and
more relevant to the Organization. In response
to such requests, I have presented to the
Commission a proposal aimed at streamlining
and strengthening our Commission, to improve
the work of our subsidiary bodies and make
the results of their work more relevant
to Governments.
I wish to inform you that
I am submitting to the forthcoming session
of the Commission a new paper on these issues.
In this paper I am proposing, among other
suggestions, that PSBs carry out every year
an assessment of their intergovernmental
structure and report to the Commission thereon.
I am also submitting another paper, on Major
policy directions for UNECE work, where
I propose that, in view of the challenges
the UNECE region is facing, including EU
enlargement and the special development
needs of certain UNECE member countries,
the UNECE focuses its work on areas where
it has value added, including the development
of norms and regulations, but also on the
implementation of these norms as well as
on monitoring and assessment. I wish to
invite this Committee to consider in due
course how best to follow up these proposals.
In this connection, I have
noted that you will discuss a document on
Strategic Objectives of the Committee, prepared
by your Bureau, in which some of these issues
are addressed. I very much welcome this
paper, which is very much in line with our
thinking. It seems to me indispensable that
you consider very carefully strategic issues
that will have major impacts on your future
work. In particular, I consider of utmost
importance the issues related to the development
of Euro-Asian transport links, to transport
security and transport and environment and
social and economic developments. The Euro-Asian
transport links will be of strategic importance
for the economic growth and prosperity of
the UNECE member countries concerned and
for their integration into the European
and global economy. The Bureau, at its 3-4
December 2002 meeting, recommended to the
ITC to consider the convening of a Round
Table on transport infrastructure development
in a wider Europe including Euro-Asian Transport
links, back to back with the 16th Session
of the Working Party on Transport Trends
and Economics. In the meantime, on 20 December
2002, the Group on the Integration of new
member States of the ECMT made a proposal
to discuss the future of the Pan-European
Transport Infrastructure Planning in a Seminar
to be organised in November 2003 with participation
of the UNECE. Whatever decision you make,
what it is important is that discussion
would include transport infrastructure development
connecting not only acceding but also non-acceding
countries with the rest of Europe.
You will also be considering Intersectoral
activities, including Transport, Environment
and Health. I hope the transport sector
will participate actively in this work,
which affects it so directly. The High-Level
Meeting adopted last year the Transport,
Health and Environment Pan-European Programme
and established its Steering Committee.
This is an important achievement in integrating
sectoral activities but also the efforts
of different UN bodies (UNECE, WHO). In
2002, at the WSSD in Johannesburg, the Implementation
Plan on Sustainable Development was adopted.
The Plan, in its chapter on institutional
framework, calls on the regional commissions
to integrate into their programme of work
all three dimensions of sustainable development.
The follow-up to the WSSD will be discussed
at the Annual Session of the Commission
in early March. The role of your Committee
will be to further explore how to better
steer your work towards the objectives of
sustainable development.
Transport plays an indispensable
role in the promotion of trade and FDI -
-two important factors of development. The
General Assembly at its 57th session endorsed
the outcome of the ICFfD in March 2002 in
Monterrey in which trade and FDI were recognized
together with ODA as major factors of development.
I would like to encourage you - in close
cooperation with ECMT - to consider this
and other aspects like labour mobility whenever
transport infrastructure is on your agenda.
Security related aspects
in transport were introduced into your agenda
at your last session. In the wake of the
tragic events of 11 September 2001, intensified
international cooperation and action to
effectively prevent terrorist attacks was
bound to become a pressing need. I am pleased
to note that a number of measures have already
been taken in such areas as Vehicle Regulations,
Transport of Dangerous Goods, Road Transport
and Road Safety, all of which will contribute
to a higher degree of security in transport.
I invite you to pursue your efforts towards
the identification of any other security
measures that it may be appropriate to develop.
Concerning the long list
of International Legal Instruments developed
under the auspices of the Committee, I have
noted the large number of countries that
have become Parties to most of them. I wish
to underline the importance of these instruments
for international transport, in particular
in countries with economies in transition.
It is important that countries that have
not yet done so become Contracting Parties
to these instruments. It is also important
that all countries implement them fully
and effectively. To this end, we need to
better monitor their implementation by the
various countries and to assist countries
in transition in this task.
At a prominent place on
your agenda are items related to transport
infrastructure with the four international
agreements concerning the UNECE infrastructure
networks. I note also your endeavours to
promote the Pan-European Transport Corridors
and the Euro-Asian Transport Links. Regarding
the latter, the further elaboration of the
elements of the Common UNECE/ESCAP Strategic
Vision appears to be timely and the establishment
of a task force to that effect under UNECE/ESCAP
leadership is called for. Your work in this
field seems to be all the more appropriate,
as our member countries in Central Asia
and the Caucasus may be expected to acquire
an ever increasing importance in the UNECE
work programme in the coming years.
As you are aware, the secretariat
is also contributing to this endeavour.
Several years ago, we launched in cooperation
with ESCAP the Special Programme for the
Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), which
has a Working Group on Transport. More recently,
as you know, on the proposal of the five
United Nations regional commissions, the
General Assembly approved the United Nations
Development Account Project on Capacity
Building for the Development of Interregional
Transport Linkages. This Project, which
will be implemented under the supervision
of the Directors responsible for Transport
in the various regional commissions, will,
as far as UNECE and ESCAP are concerned,
focus mainly on Euro-Asian Transport Links.
I am pleased to announce that we have finally
received authorization to use the Project
funds for 2003. The Project will therefore
now be launched and, in the next few days,
the Executive Secretary of ESCAP and myself
will send a joint letter to a number of
UNECE and ESCAP member countries, inviting
them to participate in the Project and to
nominate a Focal Point. I look forward to
an active participation by all concerned.
Of course, other voluntary contributions
would be welcome.
Another main transport
issue that is at the centre of your interest
is Road Safety. Your work aims at a reduction
of the toll of deaths and injured in road
traffic. I would like to refer, in particular,
to the Fourth Road Safety Week in the UNECE
region, scheduled to be held from 5 - 11
April 2004. I welcome the decision of the
Working Party to organize this Week in conjunction
with the 2004 WHO World Health Day, to be
held on 7 April 2004 and which will be devoted
to road safety. I am also pleased to note
that a Draft Resolution is before you for
adoption in order to foster the resolve
of Governments to raise the awareness of
the importance of measures to prevent traffic
accidents. I should like to urge you to
support all necessary actions and to consider
launching national campaigns in your countries
on this occasion.
I would also like to refer
to the crisis that the TIR system experienced
towards the end of last year. As you may
know, due to the disproportionate number
of Customs irregularities committed by organized
crime in the Russian Federation, the TIR
guarantee chain was suddenly confronted
with a major increase in the risk to be
covered and was obliged to announce the
suspension of the guarantee coverage. Fortunately
a solution was found that allowed cancellation
of the suspension, otherwise the Russian
Federation and many other countries would
have suffered major disruptions in their
international transport and trade and losses
in their economies. I believe that the TIR
system still remains under threat by organized
crime, which is targeting a number of countries
in transition. I wish to draw your attention
to the fact that we have to take the necessary
measures to avoid the prospect that the
TIR system would cease to exist in the near
future. I therefore call upon you to take
all required steps to avoid such an occurrence.
Madam Chairman, Distinguished
Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The work of this Committee
and its subsidiary bodies has been recognized
as very important for the achievement of
an efficient and well-balanced, safe and
sustainable transport system in the UNECE
region. Through it, you contribute to the
economic development and integration of
countries and to the welfare of populations
in the UNECE region. I would like to assure
you that the secretariat will spare no effort
to provide you with the assistance needed
to reach this objective.
I wish you every success
in your work and thank you for your attention.
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