Skip to main content

First Middle East ITS conference and exhibition

The first Middle East conference and exhibition on ITS, held in December 2006 in Dubai, was opened by His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Al- Mogbel, the president of ITS Arab and Deputy Minister of Transport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The two-day conference, the theme of which was 'Shaping the Future with ITS Solutions', focused on traffic safety, congestion, security and demand management. H.E Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel said, "ITS Arab will play a vital role in the development of sustainable ITS deployments across t
March 12, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
The first Middle East conference and exhibition on ITS, held in December 2006 in Dubai, was opened by His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Al- Mogbel, the president of 1697 ITS Arab and Deputy Minister of Transport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The two-day conference, the theme of which was 'Shaping the Future with ITS Solutions', focused on traffic safety, congestion, security and demand management.

H.E Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel said, "ITS Arab will play a vital role in the development of sustainable ITS deployments across the Middle East and North Africa in partnership with the regional and international ITS community".

Fabrizio Minarini, Head of Sector, Intelligent Car Initiative, 1690 European Commission, praised ITS Arab and expressed support from the European Commission to the conference.
Richard Barnes, London Assembly Member: "It is now an accepted policy across all the main political parties in the United Kingdom that ITS is an absolute must. The problem we have is that we are not sure what ITS means, why we are doing it, and we have not fully developed an integrated approach." Barnes shared his experience in policy development that provided thought-provoking debates and provided a political balance from a European perspective. His contribution provided the link between ITS and security, reinforcing the importance of developing and communicating clear ITS policy objectives to the wider public.

Barnes's view was echoed by the Dr Essam Sharaf, former Minister of Transport, Egypt, who suggested the use of asset management systems as an approach to communicating ITS objectives and benefits to politicians and the general public. Dr Sharaf added, "Studies from around the world have concluded that the transport infrastructure satisfies both the natural human desire to mobility, as well as being vital for economical prosperity, and therefore ranks transport infrastructure as one of the most important projects." "The key word is integration, by marrying transport infrastructure with ITS technologies we will see a completely new type of transport infrastructure that looks the same but will provide a new way of delivering mobility function." The business case for ITS benefits was reinforced by Riyadh Dabbo, Managing Director, Arab Road Safety Organisation, when he presented the shocking statistics regarding human losses, which show that within the Arab countries there are 32,000 traffic fatalities every year. Worldwide the transport fatalities total 1.2 million with 12 million injuries. "In terms of human losses, we have a 9/11 every day around the world," Dabbo said.

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal www.nfm-bauma.de www.nfm-bauma.de false http://www.nfm-bauma.de/ false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ITS World Congress premieres Kongressnavigator
    September 26, 2012
    Available for download from this week, the ITS World Congress ‘Kongressnavigator’is the first app to combine all the most important things at a congress. It helps visitors navigate through the city and the congress centre, and it integrates the conference programme, transportation schedules and tickets. All this comes together on the smartphone - now available for the iPhone, Android and as a mobile web application.
  • UK freight trains to be upgraded with European Train Control Systems
    December 20, 2017
    Network Rail has contracted Siemens Rail Automation to install European Train Control System (ETCS) in-cab signalling on 750 of the UK's heaviest locomotives to improve safety and provide better use of the network with plans to retrofit the entire fleet in 2022. This technology forms part of the country's Digital Railway programme, and the government has invested £450m ($602m) as part of its National Productivity Fund. For the first phase, Siemens will install its Trainguard 200 (T200) ETCS on-board
  • MaaS Market London: Ertico’s Jacob Bangsgaard joins speaker line-up
    December 20, 2018
    More leading ITS innovators have been confirmed as speakers at ITS International’s fourth MaaS Market conference in London, UK, on March 20-21, 2019. Among them is Jacob Bangsgaard, CEO of European association Ertico and president of the MaaS Alliance, the public-private partnership working to create the foundations for a common European approach to Mobility as a Service (MaaS). From the UK, Paul Campion, CEO of Transport Systems Catapult and Chris Lane, head of smart travel from Transport for West Midlan
  • Unique train safety system developed by German Aerospace Centre
    October 24, 2012
    The German Aerospace Centre DLR has arrived at the 2012 ITS World Congress with a unique system for rail safety – for preventing collisions between trains and improving safety for track workers. Whereas conventional train collision avoidance systems involve networks of base stations, DLR’s Railway Collision Avoidance System (RCAS) uses direct communication between trains or hand held devices without expensive infrastructure and so with substantial reduction in cost. “RCAS communication is via the Tetra stan