UIC Asia-Pacific launched the first edition of the UIC ASEAN e-Days web meeting series on 16 October. These meetings are to be held on a monthly basis in order to provide an opportunity for the 12 current UIC ASEAN members to share and connect on any relevant topics for development or of concern at their respective railways.

This will also facilitate cooperation between the members and the experts at UIC HQ in Paris, as well as collaboration with other members from Asia-Pacific, Europe and the rest of the world, and will promote dialogue between the parties, potentially also leading to new project proposals from the Asia-Pacific ASEAN sub-region.

This first series of meetings, moderated by Mr Milko Papazoff, UIC ASEAN representative, provided an opportunity for 21 participants representing nine members (KAI and MASKA from Indonesia, KTMB, MyHSR CORP and RAC from Malaysia, DOTR and PNR from the Philippines, SRT from Thailand and VNR from Vietnam) to discuss and interact with Mr Vincent Vu, UIC Director of Institutional Relations, Asia-Pacific Coordinator, Ms Béatrice Segeral, Senior Advisor, Institutional Relations & Asia-Pacific Region, and Mr Charlie Yoon of the Asia-Pacific Coordination department at UIC HQ on the latest developments at the region’s statutory meetings, work plans, projects and studies, as well as review tools available for members, including the Intranet, Extranet, ETF Shop and databases.

This was followed by a presentation on the UIC Statistics Unit and the RAILISA (RAIL Information System and Analyses) online tool, given by Ms Alice Favre, Head of the Statistics Unit, and a Q&A session highlighting members’ priorities and expectations for future series. It was agreed that the second series of meetings, scheduled for 19 November, would focus on IT services and railway digitalisation.

The first series of meetings was well-received by the members. Further UIC Asia-Pacific e-Days may be organised, tailored to members’ specific needs.