The 13th Asian Regional Assembly was recently held on 17 April in Taipei, under the chairmanship of Mr Chung Chang-Young, the new CEO and President of KORAIL (Korean Railways). The assembly approved a strategic course of action aiming to bring UIC even closer to its members, operators and railway infrastructure companies in Australia and New Zealand by re-naming itself the “Asia-Oceania Regional Assembly”, which is fully in keeping with the assembly’s statutes.

During this Regional Assembly, an update was given on the full programme of work and meetings held in 2012. As for projects being prepared for 2013 – alongside those put forward by new members to UIC – a number of multi-regional projects, to be shared with other networks in Europe, have been proposed for the 2013 opting-in procedure. This Regional Assembly was preceded on 16 April by the 3rd working day aimed at Asian member experts, addressing in detail the ongoing and future projects in the areas of safety and rail system.

All the participants from the two-day meeting thus agreed to attend the 14th Asia-Oceania Regional Assembly and the (now well-established) expert day preceding it, on 30 and 31 October this year at the kind invitation of RZD (Russian Railways). This meeting will be a key opportunity to approve the actions for the 2013 work programme.