The Executive Committee of the UIC African Region was held on 20 October 2015 in Marrakech, Morocco, under the chairmanship of Mr Mohamed Khlie (Director General of Moroccan State Railways ONCF), with 16 participants representing the African Region. The members reviewed the work results of the last five years.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of UIC, underlined that the African Region had made significant progress thanks to the effective involvement of its members. The UIC Director General also expressed his gratitude to Mr Mohamed Khlie for leadership and to his support staff for their contribution, which resulted in even more achievements than expected from the planned actions.
Mr Said Chandid, Director for Strategy and Communication at ONCF, presented the African Region activities report for 2015, focusing on where the Region was involved, participated or organised the following events:
- 1st International Conference on Railway Interoperability in Doha
- 3rd World Congress on Railway Training in Lisbon
- 3rd edition of the Training Session on Railway Safety in Rabat
- ILCAD 2015 – regional safety on border crossing awareness actions in Africa
- 1st Colloquium on International Cooperation held in Rabat
- 5th International Conference “Next Station” in Marrakech
- Bilateral meetings organised by ONCF during the year to strengthen cooperation between members of the region
The Representative Bureau for the African Region, recently transferred from Tunis to Rabat, starts work to support more efficient regional activity and planned actions for this year and the years to come. As the effect of this the publication of the communication papers, the update of the website, etc. Under preparation is the next session of the training course for African region members to be held in Rabat from 2 – 15 November on the subject “Maintenance of the railway track”.
After the meeting, Mrs Sabiha Derbel, President of Tunisian Railways (SNCFT) and Mr Mohamed Khlie, CEO of Moroccan Railways, and Chairman of UIC Africa, signed the “UIC Sustainability Pledge”, a document with reference to Paris COP21 events, in which UIC is deeply involve, in particular within the framework of the “Train to Paris” global campaign.
The UIC African Executive Committee members have decided to hold their Regional Assembly meeting in Paris on 30 November (event begins at 9:00 at UIC HQ) to discuss the Regional Work Plan for 2016 and beyond.
