Mr Hong, Soon-man, recently appointed new CEO and President of Korea Railroad Corporation Korail, visited UIC Headquarters in Paris on 4 April and met the Director General of UIC Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux and several members of the management team of UIC, Vincent Vu, Director of Institutional Relations, Coordinator for the Asia-Pacific Region, Paul Véron, Director, Relations with Members and Partner Organisations, Coordinator for the Middle-East Region, and Francis Bédel, Chief Digital Officer at UIC.

The Korail delegation included Mr Albert B, H, Ahn, Senior Executive Director, Passenger Business HQ, Mr Won, Jong-Chul, Head of International Cooperation Department, IRaTCA, Mr Lee, Ju Hyung, Senior Advisor at UIC seconded from Korail.

UIC Director General presented Mr Hong, Soon-man with the main focuses of international cooperation activities of the railways within the UIC framework. He mentioned in particular the global activities related to standardisation and interoperability, railway research, the digital revolution and the perspectives for railways, the development of long distance intercontinental corridors, in particular Euro-Asian corridors, the activities aiming to improve the sustainability of rail transport, educational and training activities, etc.

Vincent Vu gave an overview of the activities of the UIC Asia-Pacific Region and Francis Bédel presented the main challenges and perspectives connected with the digitalisation of the railways, in mentioning in particular the activities of the UIC Digital Platform.

KORAIL as a railway is very active in the field of railway research and implementation of advanced technologies (in terms of high speed, automated operations, introduction of digital system, etc.) was invited to play an active role in the development of the UIC Digital programme (coordinated by the Digital Platform).

The visit provided an opportunity for extremely open and constructive exchanges between Korail and UIC delegations.