The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA) convened the Sixteenth Session of the ESCWA Committee on Transport, in Cairo, Egypt, from 23 to 24 November 2015.  The meeting is of special interest to experts in land and maritime transport, transport and trade facilitation and road safety.

This year’s session, opened at 3 pm on Monday 23 November 2015, discussed the follow-up on the implementation of the Integrated Transport System in the Arab Mashreq (ITSAM) in ESCWA member countries with a focus on (a) the national committees for the facilitation of transport and trade; (b) the Memorandum of Understanding on Maritime Transport Cooperation in the Arab Mashreq; and (c) road safety. The secretariat also presented the results of a survey on the status of implementation of trade facilitation and paperless trade measures in the countries of the region as part of the Global Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade.

The meeting further presented a report on the status of road safety in the Arab region, a proposed manual on establishing and activating road safety management systems, and its remarks on the draft Brasilia declaration on road safety which is expected to be adopted at the Second Global High-level Conference on Road Safety (Brasilia, 18-19 November 2015). All presentations and discussions were in Arabic.

On 23 November 2015 and before the opening of the session, a joint meeting convened by the secretariat for delegates participating in the sixteenth session of the Committee on Transport and delegates participating in the tenth session of the Committee on the Liberalization of Foreign Trade, Economic Globalization and Financing for Development (which will also be held in Cairo, on 22 and 23 November 2015) to launch and discuss the conclusions of the first issue of the report entitled “Arab Economic Integration Assessment”, scheduled for  publishing by the end of 2015.
Further information and details are available in the documents of the 16th session of transport committee here attached.