The ASEAN Railways CEO’s Conference was held from 11th-12th March 2010 in New Delhi. The meeting was hosted by Mr S.S. Khurana, Chairman of the Board of the Ministry of Railways in India (IR) and by Mr Thalar from the Asian Institute of Transport Development (AITD,) and attended by 12 countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Representatives of UIC, the World Bank (Mr Amos), the Asian Development Bank (Mr Narain), UNESCAP (Mr Chartier) and AITD also participated. UIC was represented by Mr. Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General, and Mr. Mukul Saran Mathur, Head of UIC Asia Delhi office.

The conference was inaugurated by Mr. E. Ahamed, Minister of State for Railways in India. The participants at the conference acknowledged the need for putting in place the missing links in the Trans Asian Railway network, adopting methods for improving the productivity of man power through appropriate training, encouraging low cost technical innovations through cooperative research, adopting CDM for earning carbon credits and utilizing funding through public private partnerships. The participants discussed the possibility of railway reforms required in the railways of the region. In this regard, Mr. Loubinoux delivered a presentation on the liberalisation of railways in Europe, America and Japan, and was very pleased to see that the conference had served as an occasion to give a good overview of all the interconnection projects between the different countries in South and Southeast Asia.