IRaTCA successfully completed the Railway Policy and Management Course, held from 31 October to 5 November, under the leadership of UIC, IRaTCA has conducted four UIC-joint training programmes for UIC Asian regional members to date, held annually until last year, but twice in 2011 on a trial basis.
The training curriculum was very different to the one in March with more opportunity to organise study visits to leading ship and rolling stock manufacturers such as Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Rotem. While a chartered bus took the trainees to Changwon, Ulsan and Busan City located in Korea’s southeastern region for the study visit, KTX was used when they came back to give them an opportunity to experience the high speed train. They also visited KORAIL’s representative railway facilities such as Guro CTC (Centralised Traffic Control) centre and Goyang KTX depot. Sleeping accommodation which is located in Gangnam, Seoul, was provided to allow the trainees easy access to the centre of town.
Public Private Partnerships (PPP), an area of focus for UNESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), was the subject of a lecture given by Mr Mukul Saran Mathur, Head of UIC’s Asia Regional office in New Delhi, India. The subject of PPP was prepared as a special lecture for this UIC course and the trainees had great interest in this lecture since their country may use a PPP type of railway construction plan in the future.
The certificate award ceremony was held in the presence of Mr Huh Joon-Young, CEO/President of KORAIL, who gave his congratulatory speech, and presented souvenirs to each trainee. In his speech, he stressed the strengthening of cooperation and human network through this training programme for the co-prosperity of Asian railways.
Ms Namita Tripathi from India thanked KORAIL and IRaTCA for opening this training programme, and mentioned that advanced Korean railway technology and operation systems were all good subjects for benchmarking to develop each trainee’s railway in the future.
Unfortunately, Mr Pierre Chartier, Economic Affairs Officer for UNESCAP’s Transport Division, who was going to make a presentation about PPP, had to be absent due to the flood damage in Thailand, and two trainees from Nepal as well as two other trainees from Kazakhstan were unable to attend. The other participants from Cambodia, India, Laos, and Vietnam – including KORAIL representatives – fully enjoyed the course, however, and shared friendship thanks to this opportunity to participate.
Mr Hyon, Yong-Chon, Director of IRaTCA, mentioned that the UIC Railway Policy and Management course had gained increasing popularity among trainees since 2009, and IRaTCA is developing the course to benefit as many trainees as possible. He also said that the 2012 UIC Railway Policy and Management course will be held with stronger driving power to ensure the course is fruitful and valuable.
