IRU¡¯s Secretary General held a series of high-level talks with transport ministers in Geneva this week on the urgent need to improve international transport and border operations.
In Geneva this week, ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Secretary General Umberto de Pretto met with transport ministers from Iran, Iraq and Tajikistan on the sidelines of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe¡¯s (UNECE)¡¯s Inland Transport Committee meetings.
The talks followed his participation in a small closed-door ministerial workshop earlier in the week at the World Economic Forum. In a wide-ranging discussion on sustainable transport policy priorities, Umberto de Pretto outlined the crucial role of streamlining trade and border processes.
T¨¹rkiye¡¯s Minister of Transport, Abdulkadir Uralo?lu, echoed IRU¡¯s message at the workshop, stressing the urgent need to resolve border bottlenecks that leave truck drivers stranded for days.
The three ministerial meetings, held at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½headquarters, focused on boosting cross-border cooperation, improving logistics efficiency, and speeding up the digitalisation of transport and customs, with a key focus on the TIR system to streamline trade.
Iran¡¯s Minister of Road and Urban Development, H.E. Farzaneh Sadegh Malvajerd, highlighted the country¡¯s rapid progress in expanding its transit corridors, confident that volumes would reach a record 20 million tons by 21 March 2025.
She noted that continued collaboration with ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½is crucial to sustaining this growth and emphasised Iran¡¯s commitment to digitalising transport operations.
