The 25th UIC Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly (APRA), in conjunction with the Workshop on UIC Asia-Pacific Projects 2017-2019 and the UIC-Korail Training Session 2018 on Railway Maintenance and Operation in the Digital Era, hosted by Korail (Korea Railroad Corporation), successfully took place on 21 June 2018 in Seoul, Korea.

In the absence of the APRA Chairman, Mr Oleg Belozerov, Chairman of RZD, Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of UIC chaired the APRA. On behalf of its Chairman, Mr Vyacheslav Pavlovskiy, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of RZD, expressed his sincere regrets for his absence due to the Russia-Korea Summit in Moscow the same day and wished all the participants a fruitful meeting. For the same reason, Mr Oh Young-sik, Chairman of Korail was represented by Mr Cho Hyungik, Acting CEO of Korail who, as the host, welcomed all the delegates to Seoul.

In addition, the UIC APRA Vice-Chairman, Mr Lu Dongfu, General Manager of CR represented by Mr Guo Zhuxue, Vice President, China Railway (CR) wished to extend his sincere greetings to all the attendees and announced that the 11th edition of the UIC World Congress on High Speed Rail would be held in China. Due to a train accident in Kazakhstan, Mr Alpysbayev Kanat, Chairman of KTZ and UIC APRA Vice Chairman was absent.

The meeting was mainly focused on the ongoing and future projects presented in detail the morning during the Workshop on 2017-2018 projects. Mention was also made of the official call for candidates to apply to the UIC Executive Board, the UIC Asia-Pacific Management Committee (APMC) and for the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the UIC Asia-Pacific region for 2019-2020.

At the end of the meeting, the future meetings were announced by Mr Vincent Vu, Director of Institutional Relations and the Asia-Pacific region, especially the next Regional Assemblies which should be hosted by our partners UNESCAP and ADB which were represented by Ms Abel Ariadne, Economic Affairs Officer, Transport Division of UNESCAP and Mr Zander Ruediger, Senior Railway Specialist from ADB.

Members were requested to take note that the 26th APRA meeting would be held in Thailand in November 2018 and the 27th APRA meeting would be held in the Philippines in June 2019.

Technical Visit

On 22 June, a technical visit was organised during the day for the participants, hosted by KORAIL (Korea Railroad Corporation). The participants had the opportunity to visit the following:

• Seoul Station
• The Korean Demilitarised Zone
• Dorasan Station