The 10th GTI Transport Board meeting was held online on 1 July 2021. The Meeting co-organized by the GTI Secretariat and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea.
The GTI Transport Board meeting was preceded by the 2nd ESCAP-GTI Seminar on Transport Issues in North-East Asia on 30 June 2021 (the 1st Seminar was held in Ulaanbaatar in October 2019). The Seminar was organized jointly by ESCAP East and North-East Asia Office and the GTI Secretariat under the theme of “Transport Sector: Cross-Sectoral Linkages towards Resilient Connectivity”. In line with the aim of cross-sectoral engagements, participation from the GTI member countries included the GTI Transport Board and GTI Transport Expert Group members, representatives of other GTI’s sectoral committees (GTI Trade and Investment Committee, Customs Sub-Committee, NEA Local Cooperation Committee), as well as NEA EXIM Banks Association, NEA Business Association and GTI Research Institutions Network.
During the Seminar, perspectives on areas of coordination on subregional connectivity involving transport and trade facilitation were presented. In the following session GTI’s sectoral bodies’ officials and experts shared their inputs on how cross-sectoral linkages on connectivity can be strengthened in North-East Asia through the GTI platform. The GTI Secretariat shall continue coordination with ESCAP ENEA Office to jointly organize follow-up activities in line with the cross-sectoral approach in transport and trade sectors.
The presentations from the Seminar as well as the recording are available on the ESCAP website:
https://www.unescap.org/events/2021/2nd-escap-gti-seminar-transport-issues-north-east-asia
In the course of the 10th GTI Transport Board meeting, the GTI Transport Board members and the GTI Secretariat provided a regular update on the progress in transport cooperation since the previous transport board meeting including the implemented and ongoing projects and activities. Participants also reviewed the findings and recommendations from the 2nd ESCAP-GTI Seminar on Transport Issues.
Furthermore, the Transport Board members discussed the revised versions of the Board’s basic guiding documents - Regional Transport Strategy and the GTI Midterm Transport Action Plan (2021-2024). The proposed drafts of the documents were prepared by the GTI Secretariat in consultation with the GTI Transport Experts based on the outcomes of the study “Evolution of Regional Value Chain and Logistics Networks in Greater Tumen Region” conducted by KIEP for GTI in 2020. The Transport Board members agreed on the Targets and Policy Directions of the Regional Transport Strategy and agreed that the Action Plan should be finalized through further consultations among the Transport Board members and the GTI Secretariat.
The Transport Board also approved the initiative from Maritime State University named after Admiral G. Nevelskoy (MSUN, Vladivostok, Russia) to organize a webinar on “Common Approaches to Training of Logistics Personnel in NEA”, which is in line with the earlier approved “cooperation in the education sphere” direction of joint work.
Participants from the central transport ministries of the GTI Countries, regional transport authorities, representatives of the academia and research institutes, ESCAP East and North-East Asia office, Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank attended the meeting.
The chairmanship in the GTI Transport Board was handed over to the Russian Federation.