ULAANBAATAR – The 9th GTI Transport Board meeting was held on 11 October 2019. The Meeting co-organized by the GTI Secretariat and the Ministry of Roads and Transport Development of Mongolia was preceded by the 1st ESCAP-GTI Seminar on Transport Issues in North-East Asia under the theme “Transport Corridors: Challenges and Opportunities for North-East Asia” on 10 October.
1st ESCAP-GTI Seminar on Transport Issues in NEA
The 1st ESCAP-GTI Seminar on Transport Issues in NEA "Transport Corridors: Challenges and Opportunities for Nort-East Asia" was structured in three sessions: Issues in Focus, during which respective experts from the region as well as from international organizations shared the latest developments with regards to technology and transport corridors, cross-border information exchange in transport corridors, trade and transport facilitation issues related to transit and railway initiatives in North-East Asia.
During the Countries in Focus session, country representatives from transport ministries of the GTI member countries informed about the priorities of development on transport corridors in their countries and latest progress.
The session Project in Focus contributed to the GTI’s project of the “Joint Research on Evolution of Regional Value Chains and Logistics Networks in the Greater Tumen Region (GTR)”. Consultants for the transport section of the research project provided update on the current state of the GTI transport corridors and shared some initial ideas regarding the development of NEA transport and logistics network.
The research is supposed to be the first stage of the larger project of “Study on NEA Integrated Logistics Network”, proposed by the GTI Secretariat and discussed during the 8th GTI Transport Board meeting (September 2018, Beijing). The NEA Integrated Logistics Network Project has the objective to suggest new logistics schemes in NEA; recommend project pipeline with an updated GTI Regional Transport Strategy, Long-term Directions of Development and next phase of the Midterm Action Plan.
The ESCAP-GTI Seminar on Transport Issues in NEA should become a regular event organized jointly by the ESCAP East and North-East Asia Office and GTI Secretariat on the sidelines of the GTI Transport Board meetings.
The presentations and discussion highlights of the seminar are available on the UN ESCAP website.
9th GTI Transport Board meeting
During meeting, the GTI Transport Board members and the GTI Secretariat provided a regular update of the progress in transport sector in GTI member countries, in line with the GTI Regional Transport Strategy.
The participants also had a chance to review the findings and discuss recommendations from the 1st ESCAP-GTI Seminar on Transport Issues.
Later, the Midterm Transport Action Plan was discussed and some proposals and comments from the GTI Transport Board were considered. Since the current version of the Plan is due to expire in 2019, it was agreed to revise and update the Action Plan based on the outcomes of the “Joint Research on Evolution of Regional Value Chains and Logistics Networks in the GTR”, which is supposed to be finalized in the first half of 2020.
Furthermore, GTI Transport Board members discussed and approved project and activities proposals for 2019-2020: “on cooperation in the Education & Research Spheres”, suggested by Maritime State University named after Admiral G. Nevelskoy (MSUN), which among other activities offers training opportunities for maritime industry employees at a newly built Far-Eastern Maritime Training Center; and Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI)’s proposal of a study project on “Empirical Strategy of Dual Gauge Bogie in the Greater Tumen region”.
Besides the new proposals, the GTI Secretariat suggested further steps for the implementation of the on-going projects and activities, which were supported by the Transport Board during the previous meeting.
Participants from the central transport ministries of the GTI Countries, regional transport authorities, representatives of the academia and research institutes (Research Institute of Highway of the Ministry of Transport of China, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Far-Eastern Federal University (Russia), State University named after admiral G.I. Nevelskoy (MSUN), Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA)), Customs Administration and Communication and Information Technology Authority of Mongolia, Korea Railway Network Authority (KRNA) and ESCAP East and North-East Asia office attended the meeting.
The 10th Transport Board Meeting will take place in the Republic of Korea in 2020.