CEO of Moroccan Railways (ONCF) and Chairman of the UIC African Region Mr Mohamed Rabie Khlie chaired the opening of an international conference ("Africa Rail" organised by Le Rail magazine) on 24 November at UIC headquarters in Paris. The conference focused on the development of railway transport on the African continent and was attended by around 100 speakers consisting of political decision-makers, including in particular Mr Bello Bouba Maigari, Cameroon’s Minister of State for Transport, and senior officials from African railway networks and representatives of railway sector operators.
During this meeting, the Chairman of UIC Africa reiterated in his opening speech the current issues of injecting new vitality into the railways and how to create a real tool to help serve the renaissance of our African countries. Given that this region of the globe occupies a key place in world issues and has experienced an uninterrupted growth rate of 5% between 2000 and 2009 – which is set to continue – the region is thus guaranteed a brighter future. Based on this fact, he considers it crucial that Africa should build a suitable, effective, integrated and varied railway transport system, whilst taking full advantage of the reforms and instruments implemented since the mid 1990s to ensure the survival and even boost this vital and effective sector for any social-economic take-off.
On this matter, Mr Mohamed Rabie Khlie stressed the strategic role that UIC Africa continues to play to boost cooperation in the development of a coherent railway system at the heart of this continent, and reviewed the ongoing projects related to this subject and which have taken into account the current African context. The purpose is to ensure that the African networks benefit from a range of concrete and targeted actions aiming to improve day-to-day railway operations, notably through the organisation of training sessions, practical courses and workshops as well as technical seminars. Furthermore, and on the sidelines of the seminar, the Chairman held meetings with senior officials of various African railways on the possibilities of boosting areas of cooperation. In addition, he chaired work meetings with UIC management on the preparation of the next UIC Regional Assembly for Africa. The last assembly, held on 7 December in Paris, focused on the state of progress of the study “Vision 2025 for Railway Development in Africa” as well as on the organisation of the international congress on logistics and freight corridors (UIC GRFC) held in the second semester of 2011 in Tangier, Morocco.
