Report 3 July October 2011 Carolina Theolin-Palmell World Road Association (PIARC) Paris, France

Transcription

1 Report 3 July October 2011 World Road Association (PIARC) Paris, France 1

2 Introduction In the third PIARC report from, I will mostly talk about the results from the Executive Committee Meeting, Council Meeting and the World Road Congress in Mexico City this late September. The Technical Advisors (TA) at World Road Association (WRA/PIARC) Central Office All the Technical Advisors (TA s) are responsible for different tasks, see list below. For your information, after the Congress in Mexico it was time for the Australian TA Claire Murdoch to leave after spending one year at the World Road Association office in Paris. Unfortunately, due to the floods and earthquakes that have hit Australia and New Zeeland in the last year (Australia was hit with floods and cyclones and New Zeeland with two major earthquakes) they will need to have some time to recover before seconding a new Technical Advisor to Paris. From the left; Miguel Caso Flórez, Claire Murdoch,, Yasuyuki Matsumoto This information was brought to the attention of the Secretary General Jean-Francois Corté a month or two before the Congress and we are told that it will take some months before an English Speaking TA will be able to join us in Paris. However, the good news is that Australia has started discussions with Canada about them joining Australia and New Zeeland in seconding a Technical Advisor. That way, New Zeeland, Australia, and Canada could all second a TA every third year, the same way the Nordic Road Association does it. I will keep you posted on the development on this topic. For now our Korean colleague Byeong Jin Lee will manage the Strategic Theme C for the remains of his time here at the office. Name address STA and TEDCOM (Sweden) carolina.theolin-palmell@piarc.org STB Yasuyuki Matsumoto (Japan) yasuyuki.matsumoto@piarc.org STD Miguel Caso-Flórez (Spain) miguel.caso-florez@piarc.org SPC / STC Byeong Jin Lee (South Korea) byeong-jin.lee@piarc.org 2

3 Commissions Meetings Strategic Planning Commission (SPC) Since the last SPC Meeting in Australia in April 2011 the Strategic Plan has been circulated within the committee in order to complete the minor changes discussed in Perth. The Chair of the Strategic Planning Commission, Jim Barton presented a report directly to the Executive Committee regarding the progress of the Strategic Plan and the Strategic Themes. The Strategic Plan of was later presented and approved at the Council Meeting. Next SPC Meeting will take place before the Executive Committee Meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland in April Executive Committee Meeting (ExCom) On the 23 rd of September 2011 the Executive Committee Meeting was held right before the World Road Congress at the NIKKO hotel in Mexico City. Besides finalizing the Strategic Plan before presenting it to for approval at Council, the nomination of Strategic Theme Coordinators, Technical Committee Chairs and Secretaries as well as the progress of the Strategic Themes were discussed. In general, the progress of the Themes is good. The Technical Committees end their cycle this year and they are all on their way to finalizing all the Technical Reports which are due in December The reports will be available for members to download from the Virtual Library on the World Road Association website. In the Virtual Library you can find Technical Reports going back to Most of them are available in both English and French. The Executive Committee has proposed to elect four new members for the Council to approve. The new members are: - Mrs Jane Weldon (Canada), - Mr José Maria Pertierra (Spain) - Mr Fausto Barajas Cummings (Mexico) - Mr Skirmanskas Skrinskas (Lithuania) The Chair of the National Committees Friedrich Zotter gave a report of the progress of all the National Committees. We can now welcome three new committees; the United States, Chile, Uruguay and also from Argentina. The Argentinean Committee however is not completely new but it has changed so a new Memorandum of Understanding has been signed along with the three above mentioned countries. 3

4 Council Meeting On the 24th of September 2011 the annual Council Meeting was just as the Executive Committee Meeting held at the NIKKO hotel in Mexico City. Since the Council is the highest decision making board at the World Road Association all issues have to get final approval from the Council Members. So as it shall, all the outstanding issues presented at the two Executive Committee Meetings held since the last Council Meeting in Budapest in 2010 were to be presented, voted on and approved. One of the issues standing out was the appointment of the Strategic Theme Coordinators, the Technical Committee Chairs and Secretaries. Appointed Strategic Theme Coordinators are: - F. ZOTTER, Strategic Theme Coordinator of Strategic Theme 1, Management and Performance - H. OHNISHI, Strategic Theme Coordinator of Strategic Theme 2, Access and Mobility - J. PANIATI, Strategic Theme Coordinator of Strategic Theme 3, Safety - C. MARIOTTA, Strategic Theme Coordinator of Strategic Theme 4, Infrastructure Committee Chair E Sec. F Sec. S Sec. ST1 F. ZOTTER TC1.1 Brendan NUGENT Connie YEW Vacant Alberto DE BENITO TC1.2 M a José RALLO DEL OLMO Marie-Hélène LÉVESQUE Anne PLUVINAGE Gerardo GAVILANES TC1.3 Simon PRICE Vacant Vacant Juan FERNANDO MENDOZA TC1.4 Vacant Fred AMONYA Manon BARIL Guillermo TORRES VARGAS TC1.5 Keiichi TAMURA Yukio ADACHI Johanne LEGAULT Enrique BELDA ST2 H. OHNISHI TC2.1 Jacques EHRLICH Richard HARRIS Alexis BACELAR Alejandro MOSQUERA TC2.2 André BROTO Ana Maria LEYTON François RAMBAUD Ricardo ARREDONDO TC2.3 Don HOGBEN Vacant Bernard JACOB Eric MORENO QUINTERO TC2.4 Didier GILOPPE Richard J. NELSON Vacant José Carlos VALDECANTOS TC2.5 Vacant Vacant Vacant Alfonso BALBUENA ST3 J. PANIATI TC3.1 Vacant Robert HULL Vacant Jesus LEAL TC3.2 Mike GREENHALG Brendan MARSH Lise FOURNIER Roberto LLAMAS TC3.3 Ignacio DEL REY LLORENTE Fathi TARADA Javier BORJA ST4 C. MARIOTTA TC4.1 Thomas LINDER Vacant Philippe LEPERT Oscar GUTIERREZ TC4.2 Seung-Hwan HAN Vacant Benoit PETITCLERC José DEL CERRO TC4.3 Satoshi KASHIMA Vacant Vacant Pablo DIAZ TC4.4 Vacant Vacant Thierry DUBREUCQ Aurea PERUCHO TERM Daniel VERFAILLIE Vacant Vacant Cristina HIGUERA 4

5 As for the Chairs and Secretaries you can see the result in the list above. Unfortunately, there are still several vacant positions and the General Secretariat has therefore sent out letter on behalf of Secretary General Jean-Francois Corté to all First Delegates to ask them again if they can nominate people for these positions. The deadline for new nominations is the 15 th of November. Kick off Meetings with new Technical Committees will be held in March of Another topic discussed at ExCom was the issue of the Pilot Technical Committees organized in the next cycle - at a regional level. As mentioned before, the TC s that have been selected are Financing, Rural Roads, Road Safety Management of Road Assets and Road Pavements. The idea of these regional TC s is to achieve a higher contribution from Latin America, French-Speaking Africa, English-speaking Africa, Australasia and Asia. On this basis, the Secretary General consulted the regional organizations of Road Administrations (see list below). The Executive Committee is asked by the Council to submit an assessment of the experiment in For Africa: ASANRA and AGEPAR, - For Latina America: DIRCAIBEA, - For Asia and Australasia: REAAA As I have reported earlier, there has been a discussion regarding the World Road Association Central Office in Paris. The latest information which was brought to the attention of the Executive Committee and Council is that the French government is still willing to let the Association use office space in Le Grand Arche in Le Defence free of charge though the PIARC staff is to move floors in mid- November The French First Delegate François Cazottes has earlier stated that the French Government is willing to continue to pay for the offices as well as for the Secretary General until the end of They now say that they will keep on supporting the Association until However, they can cancel this agreement at any time with a three months notice. The issue will be addressed again at the next ExCom in Reykjavík in April During the Council Meeting a representative from Andorra came to give a progress report regarding hosting the XIVth International Winter Congress 4-7 February 2014 in Andorra. They did a presentation talking about the Congress Center, location and transportation options for how to travel to the Congress. The Korean representatives did the same for the XXV World Road Congress on 2-6th of November in Seoul, Korea in 2015 and they also showed a short video clip to promote Korea as a country. As suggested by the Executive Committee, the Council approved Spanish to be the third official language starting next cycle. That means that at the Winter Congress in Andorra and at the next World Road Congress in Seoul the official languages will be English, French and Spanish. As for the next World Road Congress in 2015 the Korean organizers have decided to also provide Korean translation on their own request. Next Council Meeting will take place from October in 2012 in Lucerne, Switzerland. National Committees Meeting On the Sunday of 25th of September The National Committees Meeting was held at the NIKKO hotel, with outgoing Chair Friedrich Zotter. Please note that Friedrich Zotter will be staying on working for the Association in the next cycle as well but as a Strategic Theme 5

6 Coordinator for Theme 1. This is the Theme I will be (the Nordic Road Association TA will be) responsible for. Friedrich Zotter has a lot of experience given that he has been working with The World Road Association since the seventies. Friedrich Zotter is also an Executive Committee member. XXIV World Road Congress in Mexico City September 2011 Sessions, Preparatory Meetings and Pavilion On the 26 th of September the World Road Congress finally started with the Opening Ceremony as the first event of the day. In the big Congress Hall about 4000 participants had gathered to listen to the opening speeches made by the President Anne-Marie Leclerc-, and the Secretary General of the World Road Association Jean-Francois Corté. The Opening session also welcomed the President of Mexico Felipe Calderon and the Secretary of Transport and Communications Dionisio Peréz-Jacome Friscione. Due to security reasons the participants had to stay in the Congress Hall after the Opening Ceremony when the Mexican President Felipe Calderon along with the WRA President Anne-Marie Leclerc (see picture of them to the left) took a tour around the Congress Exhibition Hall. After the Opening Ceremony all the Preparatory Meetings started and I had two meetings to run between during the afternoon. Later that afternoon the Minister Session then started with many participants and directly after the PIARC pavilion was inaugurated with a Welcome Reception. On the Tuesday, the real work started so to speak. The Congress Sessions began and I had the STA session in the morning to supervise. We had had a Preparatory Meeting the day before so we had all the presentations uploaded and everything else planned. However, unfortunately there was a big internet failure between the Session Hall and the Preview Room so none of the speaker s presentations could be shown. After about 50 (!) minutes it was finally sorted and I was happy that people stayed and waited for the STA Session to start. The room was full with approximately 800 participants. I had two other Sessions and two other Preparatory Meetings that day including time at the Pavilion and I am happy to say that all other meetings went fine. We still had some minor technical problems but nothing so big we could not resolve it quite fast. On the Wednesday I supervised a couple of Technical Committee Sessions as well as a Preparatory Meeting and the rest of the day I worked at the World Road Association s Pavilion. In the Pavilion we also managed a few presentations made by different National Committees. 6

7 The WRA (PIARC) Pavilion (see picture below) was well attended with many visitors throughout the week. One reason for this success could be the design of the Pavilion. It was designed to be a meeting point for people with small tables and comfortable chairs to encourage socialisation either it was for business or for pleasure. It was decorated with 118 National flags representing all the member countries of the Association. Posters from all National Committees were on display in the Pavilion as well. The next day (Thursday), I had two meetings to supervise and after that I spent most of the day working at the World Road Association Pavilion. At night it was time for the World Road Congress Dinner which was attended by approximately 3500 people. Friday the 30 th of September was the final day of the Congress and I supervised one Session, worked at the Pavilion and attended the Closing Ceremony. The Secretary General Jean- Francois Corté did two speeches. In his speeches he thanked the permanent staff and the Technical Advisors seconded from all over the World for a successful execution of the World Road Congress. In his last speech Jean-Francois also read a poem written by the Mexican Poet Antonio Machado called Caminante no hay Camino loosely translated to Walker, there is no road and I thought that was a very nice ending to his speech. Right after the Closing Ceremony I went to my last meeting in Mexico which was the meeting of incoming and outgoing Technical Chairs, Secretaries and Strategic Theme Coordinators. After a week and a half of long days with meetings everyday and official dinners almost every night it was quite nice to attend the absolute final meeting of this trip to Mexico City. As a conclusion I must say that even though there had been many technical problems, especially at the start of the Congress, I think people felt it was a good and interesting Congress. What I have learned is that the Mexicans might be a little slow in the start but eventually everything is resolved and since this Congress had approximately 4000 participants, which is a record in the history of World Road Congresses, it has to be said that is was a very successful Congress - in the end. As a token of appreciation the Mexican organizers held a Mexican Fiesta for the PIARC staff and at a local restaurant in Mexico City. Traditional Mexican food and beverage was served and I think it was a very nice gesture from the Mexican organizers, especially since they must have been quite tired after pulling everything off as well as they did. The next World Road Congress will be held in Seoul, Korea in November in

8 Routes Roads No issue of the magazine Routes Roads will be published during the fall of 2011due to the World Road Congress. However, next edition will be a Special Edition covering the whole Congress. It will be published in January The Mexican and Spanish delegations are interested to provide a Spanish translation for this particular edition. New Website The new website has been launched. We are experiencing some technical problems but with every day that goes by they are being resolved. Please do not hesitate to contact me or the office if you need help managing the new website. Call for nominations for Technical Committee Members In November, letters will be sent out to all the First Delegates of the Association to ask for nominations for members of the Technical Committees for the coming cycle of Upcoming events NRA (NVF) Meetings in November, Oslo Norway CIRC Meeting in February 2012 Kick off Meetings March 2012 Executive Committee Meeting April 2012 La Grande Arche Paroi Nord Niveau La Défense Cedex France Tel.+33(0) Cell Fax: carolina.theolin-palmell@piarc.org Web: info@piarc.org 8