Skip to main content

Transport Ministers declare determination to improve global connectivity

“Seamless transport is a powerful and ambitious strategic vision for the future of transport systems,” Transport Ministers from 53 member countries stated in a common declaration agreed at the annual Summit of the International Transport Forum on Seamless Transport: Making Connections in Leipzig, Germany. Seamless transport, the declaration says, “drives the development of better mobility and sustainable economic growth”.
May 4, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSS“Seamless transport is a powerful and ambitious strategic vision for the future of transport systems,” Transport Ministers from 53 member countries stated in a common declaration agreed at the annual summit of the 998 International Transport Forum on Seamless Transport: Making Connections in Leipzig, Germany. Seamless transport, the declaration says, “drives the development of better mobility and sustainable economic growth”.

In their declaration, the Ministers also emphasised that sustainable transport systems are important for economic prosperity, environmental protection, safety and security of society.

“The International Transport Forum once again underlined that it is the worldwide, leading platform to discuss transport issues,” said Michael Kloth, acting secretary-general of the International Transport Forum. “We are glad about the commitment of our member countries to cooperate even closer to reduce inefficiencies at the seams between transport modes, jurisdictions, systems, sectors and countries. In this way, the transport sector can become a real driver for economic growth.”

At the Summit, Ministerial Roundtables with selected participants also discussed the issues of piracy at sea, cruise ship safety, volcanic ash clouds and the future of the car. Three of these Ministerial Roundtables issued Joint Statements which were noted by the Ministerial meeting and were annexed to the declaration.

The Ministerial meeting also welcomed Chile, the first country from South America joining the global transport policy body, as the 54th member country of the International Forum.

In their meeting, Ministers also elected Professor Jose Manuel Viegas from Portugal as secretary-general-elect of the Forum. Viegas is expected to take up his office this summer, taking over from acting secretary-general Michael Kloth.

The International Transport Forum is an intergovernmental organisation within the OECD family that acts as a global transport policy think tank. The annual Summit included a Ministerial meeting, panel discussions with leaders from business, research and civil society as well as bilateral and informal meetings.

Headlined “Funding Transport”, the next Summit of the International Transport Forum is scheduled to take place 22-24 May in Leipzig.

For a full programme and videos of key events at this year’s Forum, visit www.internationaltransportforum.org/2012

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • LA launches own ‘Green New Deal’
    August 15, 2019
    Los Angeles, once a temple to the automobile, has followed the Democrats in launching its own Green New Deal – and the city has made big pledges on urban mobility investment The Democratic Party has started something. The Green New Deal, one of whose most high-profile supporters is new congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, intends to persuade the public that swift action is necessary to combat climate change. Now the city of Los Angeles has followed suit, releasing what it calls ‘LA’s Green New Deal’.
  • New report addresses ITS dependence on M2M communications
    June 10, 2013
    A new report from Research and Markets, M2M Communications and Intelligent Transportation Systems - Markets, Standardisation, Technologies, addresses a relatively new trend in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) development - its dependence on the progress in machine to machine (M2M) communications. The report concentrates on specifics of M2M communications and the necessity to design communications technologies that agree with M2M specifics. The M2M industry, standardisation, specifics and markets
  • Signal optimisation reduces congestion, improves travel times
    February 2, 2012
    The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County's Department of Public Works(MPW) identified seven corridors in the County that experience heavy traffic congestion and needed traffic signal timing improvements to improve traffic flow as well as air quality and fuel consumption. The seven corridors included a total of 223 signalised intersections. To conduct this study, termed the Traffic Signal Optimisation Study for the Metro Nashville Signal System, MPW received funding from the Federal Conge
  • UK transport planning not giving sufficient priority to air quality, say researchers
    August 31, 2016
    According to two university researchers, UK transport planning is not sufficiently taking into account the environmental impacts of transport choices. Their report, which is due to be presented at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference today, says that road transport is the principal cause of air pollution in over 95 per cent of legally designated “Air Quality Management Areas” in the UK. Current estimates are that over 50,000 deaths a year can be attributed to air polluti