بيانات صحفية

19 نيسان/أبريل 2012

Beirut

Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transports to Open Thirteenth Session of ESCWA Committee on Transport

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Beirut, Thursday 19 April (ESCWA Communications and Information Unit)— Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Ghazi El Areedi will be opening theThirteenth Session of the ESCWA Committee on Transport on Tuesday 24 April at the UN House in Beirut. The Session, which will conclude on Thursday 26 April, will be attended by official delegates at the ministerial level from ESCWA Member Countries, members of the Working Group on the Harmonization of Institutional Frameworks and Legislation in the Transport Sector in the ESCWA Region, as well as experts representing regional and international organizations. The opening session, intended to start at 10:00 AM, will witness statements by UN Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf, Minister Al Areedi, and representative of Kuwait to the Session and the Head of the Land Transport in the Ministry of Transportation Fahd El Masoud in his capacity as Chairperson of the Twelfth Session of the Committee. Following the opening ceremony, Lebanon will assume the chairmanship of the Thirteenth Session of the Committee on Transport, while Egypt and Kuwait will be its Vice-chairman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia its Rapporteur according to the alphabetical order of ESCWA Member Countries. For this occasion, ESCWA Director of Economic Development and Globalization Division Abdalla Al Dardari today said that improving infrastructure of transport in the region would lead to a three per cent increase in the average rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any country. “From this standpoint, ESCWA has recently focused through its programmes and activities on developing the transport sector out of its conviction that without an integrated transport system, regional integration cannot be achieved,” he noted. Al Dardari defined regional integration as strengthening ties among Arab countries that leads to optimizing the benefit of each Arab country from the available opportunities in the region and the global economy such as employment, investments, trade and tourism. Al Dardari noted that regional integration and cooperation would increase the inter-state financial investment flows; organize Arab labor; and contribute to the facilitation of establishing new companies in the Arab region, especially in the services sector. “Once the Agreement on International Roads in the Arab Mashreq is implemented, the freedom of transportation would be relieved, and the efficiency of production and distribution in Arab countries would increase,” he said. Al Dardari stressed on the impact of the transport sector on sustainable development, pointing out that the availability of transport infrastructure contributes to an optimal distribution of investments, which would reduce unemployment and poverty, and better preserve the environment. Discussions of this Thirteenth Session of ESCWA Committee on Transport will revolve around two main topics, namely: the Harmonization of Institutional Frameworks and Legislation in the Transport Sector in the ESCWA Region; and Financing Projects for Building the Infrastructure of Selected the Integrated Transport System in the Arab Mashreq (ITSAM) Components. In the framework of the second topic, ESCWA has decided to submit to its upcoming Ministerial Session (May 2012) a draft resolution on the establishment of an Arab platform aiming at building partnerships between private and public sectors under the umbrella of ESCWA. Participants will also discuss the progress achieved in the field of transport since the Committee’s Twelfth Session; the progress achieved in implementing ITSAM components; in addition to the programme of work for the biennium 2012-2013 in the field of transport and the proposed strategic framework for the biennium 2014-2015 in this field. The Committee on Transport, which convenes once a year, was established in 1997. It is composed of representatives of the ESCWA Member Countries and entrusted with assuming the following tasks: participate in the establishment and formulation of priorities for programmes of work and medium-term plans in the field of transport; monitor developments in the field of transport in ESCWA member States; monitor progress achieved in the activities of the ESCWA secretariat in the field of transport; ensure the participation of Member Countries in international and regional conferences and coordinate their efforts related to the implementation of resolutions and recommendations.
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