Under the auspices of Minister of Public Works and Transport Mohammad Assafadi and in his presence, the Eighth Session of the UN-ESCWA Transport Committee was launched in Beirut on 27 March 2007 and continued until 29 March. One of the main issues discussed by the Committee was the follow-up on the implementation of the components of the Integrated Transport System in the Arab Mashreq (ITSAM), namely: the Agreement on International Roads in the Arab Mashreq; Agreement on International Railways in the Arab Mashreq; Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in the Field of Maritime Transport in the Arab Mashreq; National Transport and Trade Facilitation Committees (NTTFCs); road traffic safety; ITSAM Methodological Framework; ITSAM Geographical Information System; and international multimodal transport. This is in addition to reviewing transport related projects being executed by UN-ESCWA.   

 

Discussions focused on the proposed agreement on International Multimodal Transport of Goods in the Arab Mashreq. In this respect, the Committee agreed on the necessity and importance of this agreement and requested the UN-ESCWA Secretariat to forward the first draft to member countries before mid April 2007 for their review and comments. The draft of the agreement will be discussed in details during an expert group meeting (EGM) on 4-6 September 2007. The EGM aims to finalize the draft agreement before submitting it for approval to the Ninth Session of the Transport Committee scheduled during the first quarter of 2008. The approved agreement will be presented to the 25th Ministerial Session of UN-ESCWA scheduled in April 2008 for adoption and signature by the member countries in accordance with the UN applicable procedures.

 

At the conclusion of the Session, the participants recommended the adoption of the action plan for the implementation of the MoU on Cooperation in the Field of Maritime Transport in the Arab Mashreq after incorporating the agreed amendments. They also recommended the participation of member countries in the activities of the first UN Global Road Safety Week to be held on 23-29 April 2007.   

 

The participants praised the efforts of UN-ESCWA over the last few years in the field of transport and trade facilitation including the establishment and the strengthening of the NTTFCs. They requested UN-ESCWA to keep providing technical assistance to the concerned agencies in the member countries. The participants also called on the countries that have not yet established national committees to do so by making use of the guide for establishing NTTFCs which was prepared by UN-ESCWA in 2003. Countries that have already established NTTFCs were requested to strengthen them.

 

Concerning the Agreements on International Roads and Railways in the Arab Mashreq, the participants recommended the countries that have either not joined or ratified them yet to speed up the measures in this regard. They gave initial approval for the 2008-2009 work programme in the area of transport. This approval will be considered final by 30 June 2007, unless any comments or suggestions are provided by member countries before the set date. The participants requested the countries to provide UN-ESCWA with two reports: the first one on the follow-up on the implementation of the recommendations of the Eighth Session of the Transport Committee and the second on the follow-up of the main transport developments in each country from 1 October 2006 to 30 September 2007. The deadline for submission of the two reports is 31 October 2007.     

 

The meeting was attended by representatives of the ministries of transport, public works, interior, planning, and economy, as well as officials specialized in road, rail and maritime transport, and road traffic safety in the member countries. This is in addition to representatives from concerned international and regional organizations as observers including the League of Arab States, Gulf Cooperation Council, Arab Union for Land Transport, Arab Union for Railways, Arab Union of Maritime Carriers, Federation of Arab Ports, General Union for the Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for the Arab Countries, International Road Transport Union, Youth Association for Social Awareness (YASA), and World Youth Assembly for Road Safety.