The 23rd Meeting of the UIC Regional Assembly for Asia-Pacific (APRA) was held in Beijing on 21 June 2017. This Regional Assembly, dedicated to discussing regional issues in the Asia-Pacific region, was composed of 40 members, and was attended by 20 member representatives.
Mr. BELOZEOV Oleg, Chairman of RZD and new Chairman of the APRA, Chairman of Russian Railways RZD, greeted Members of the Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly. He opened the Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly, followed by welcoming statements by the Host and Vice Chairman Mr. LU Dongfu, General Manager of China Railway Corporation (CR), Mr. ALPYSBAYEV Kanat, Chairman of Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) and Vice-Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Region. Mr BELOZEROV finally invited UIC Director General Mr. Jean-Pierre LOUBINOUX to make a brief welcoming comment and update APRA members on the relevant activities of UIC Headquarters.
In terms of Membership, the 23rd UIC Regional Assembly for Asia-Pacific approved the provisional accession of a new Member, MASKA, Masyarakat Perkertaapian Indonesia (Indonesia Railway society). The final decision will be given at the UIC General assembly in July 2017.
During this meeting, three strategic pillars were also underlined: Productivity, Professionalism, Promotion.
Among the main messages was also the wish to build new rail connections between East and West, to meet the challenge of decreasing delivery time between countries. The aim is to grow, attract new Members, develop an interregional trade and tourism, create a quality management system for APRA in order to increase the quality of APRA project initiatives.
In addition, 47 project proposals for 2018 were presented to the Assembly.
The Regional Representatives Function Report was presented by Mr. Tom SARGANT, representative of the UIC Oceania area, Mr. Milko PAPAZOFF, representative of UIC South-East Asia and by Mrs. Irina PETRUNINA, representative of UIC Asia CIS.
Participants also took note of future workshops and meetings scheduled in the framework of the UIC Asia-Pacific Region:
- Future training UIC MITT training session, Moscow, October 2017 and workshop on Technology of freight traffic organisation according to the energy-optimised schedule with Energy efficiency in timetable: proposals and synergies, Moscow, 11-13 October, MIIT, Moscow
- Round Table on the development of rail infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific Region in Russia, 30 or 31 October 2017
- Next 17th APMC/24th APRA in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 30 or 31 October 2017
- 10th Asia-Pacific Network of Training Centres in Chengdu, China, 8-9 November 2017
After the success of the conference on Asset Management on Brisbane, a Workshop on Telecoms in Sydney, Australia from 30 April - 4 May 2018, was also proposed.
Technical Visit
On 22 June, a technical visit was organised during the day for the participants, hosted by China Railway (CR). The participants had the opportunity to visit the following:
- Operation Control Centre of the Chinese Railway network at CR Headquarters
- Beijing South Railway Station which operates high speed services
- Round trip from Beijing-Tianjin Intercity HSR Line
