Headlined "Transport for a Global Economy: Challenges & Opportunities in the Downtown", the world's leading platform for international transport came to a close today. The four-day ITF has hosted 52 Ministers and top business leaders from around the world in Leipzig, Germany, since Tuesday, May 26th. The discussions of the 2009 Forum focused on, among other subjects, the economic downturn and stimulus packages, the risks of protectionism and the challenges of sustainability as well as the financing of transport and the reliability and security of transport chains and the need for international cooperation.
Several Ministers, including the official ITF host 2009, Germany's Minister of Transport, Mr. Wolfgang Tiefensee, as well as Mr. Binali Yildirim, the Turkish Minister of Transport, the Chair of the 2009 Forum, stressed the significance of technological solutions and close international cooperation as opposed to individual national strategies in order to help transport to boost the economic recovery process. The new U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, who made his first official appearance in Europe at the Forum, underlined his country's commitment to being a partner in international transport and extending the US high speed rail system in the context of the nation's stimulus package.
While acknowledging that transport systems, in general, have never been as efficient, clean, safe and cheap as today, the ITF Secretariat stressed the fact that on all these fronts enormous challenges lie ahead, if the global transport is to meet the demands of the 21st century.
Analyzing the economic downturn, the Forum concluded that the impact of the severe downturn, which has led to dramatic volume reductions in transport markets of 20%, may not be over soon. Two reasons were identified for this assessment: First, the risk of policies leading to protectionism or excessive restrictions on financial intermediation may prevent pre-crisis economic interactions from returning, and, secondly, the crisis reflects and may correct global imbalances, most notably - but not exclusively - that between the US and China. In addition, restoring some balance may reduce trade-intensity of growth, which, in turn, will affect future transport volumes.
Looking at stimulus packages around the world, the ITF concluded that, while many of these have significant transport components, projects with short lead times, particularly suited to maintenance and upgrade work of infrastructure, are required in order to create jobs rapidly and to resolve chronic maintenance backlogs in many countries.
Discussing how to keep markets open and to avoid protectionism, the Forum observed that further deregulation would serve as a permanent stimulus to the economy. Therefore, transport markets need to be opened to international competition, with opportunities remaining in all modes and in most regions. Global competition and regulation issues, however, are not handled by a single institution, but by the individual Transport Ministries. Here, the ITF could play an important facilitation role.
Assessing sustainability issues, the Forum stressed the continuous challenges set forward by climate change. In this sense, sustainability in the transport sector does require improvement in economic efficiency, safety, social impacts and environmental protection. Incentives for technological advance and economic instruments for providing incentives for operators, industry and consumers to reduce emissions are central to this end.
The financing of transport needs continues to be challenged by a "funding gap" between the needs of the sector and available funds, the Forum observed. This gap will widen as public finances are stretched in the longer term.
Analyzing supply chains, the Forum observed that the future development of supply chains will depend on the price of energy and the price attached to external costs such as CO2, but increasingly on the capacity to provide reliable end-to-end services. It also stressed that border crossings remain a serious problem, causing both delays and increasing costs. Among many supply chain issues the Forum underlined that risk-based regulation should target resources to areas where they will bring about the most benefit, while, for example key challenges like container scanning, need to be addressed by multilateral, cost-effective approaches.
As a supra-national and inter-governmental event, the Forum provides a unique opportunity for strategic thinking on the essential role played by transport today and in the future. The ITF offers the opportunity for decision-makers of both the private sector and public bodies to devise strategies and actions on a national and international level. A highlight of the 2009 Forum was the accession to the Forum of India as a full member. In addition China was welcomed to the Forum this year as an observer.
