An organisation meeting was held on 28 January in Tehran, I.R. of Iran, at the UIC Regional Office for the Middle-East (located in Iranian Railways’ Headquarters) in view of the ‘1st International Rail-Port & Oil-Rail Seminar’ that will be held in Tehran from 7 – 8 May 2013. The organisation of this seminar was decided at the 10th Meeting of the UIC Regional Assembly for the Middle-East (UIC RAME) held from 2 – 3 June in Doha, Qatar, and results from the merging of two seminars planned in the Middle-Eastern Region: the 1st International Oil-Rail Seminar planned in Iran and the Rail-Port Cooperation Seminar initially planned in Syria.
The organisation meeting was chaired by Mr Abbas Nazari, Director General for International Affairs and Investments of RAI, Director of the UIC Regional Office, with the participation of Mr Paul Véron, Director, UIC Coordinator for the Middle-East, Mr Hassan Jamali, Deputy Director General for International Affairs, RAI, Mrs Mozhgan Kordbacheh, Head of the Office for International Organisation/UIC at RAI, Mr Ali Abdollahi, Expert at the Regional Office and RAI. Prior to the organisation meeting, a general and fruitful discussion on synergies between UIC, the Regional Office in Tehran and RAI, was held with Mr Abdol Ali Saheb-Mohammadi, Vice Minister of Roads and Urban Development of the I.R. of Iran, President of Iranian Railways RAI, UIC Middle-East 1st Vice Chairman, at RAI Headquarters.
The ‘1st International Rail-Port & Oil-Rail Seminar’ will be multi-regional. Topics to be addressed during this seminar should attract participants from all regions, in particular, Asia, Middle-East, Europe, Africa/Maghreb... Principal targets are decision-makers from the rail freight sector, ports, shipping lines, intermodal partners, industries, the oil and gas sector, freight car and terminal equipment suppliers (for freight and oil terminals, etc.).
The two-day seminar will address two main issues:
– the development of successful partnerships and synergies between sea transport, ports, rail freight, industries (examples of “dry ports”, joint ventures rail/ports, etc.),
– increasing the rail market share in oil and gas transportation in the Middle-East, Asia, etc. (initiatives to improve competitiveness of oil and gas transportation by rail to the oil terminals in ports/to ships, all successful experiences of partnerships between oil and gas industry and railway companies.
The seminar will focus on professional issues, exchange of experiences and best practices concerning marketing and commercial aspects, technical and operational aspects (including interoperability, safety and security...) multimodality and interface at terminals, the regulatory and legal framework, etc.
The programme is planned to be issued at the beginning of next week.
