nCa Report
Ashgabat, 21 October 2016 (nCa) — The 38th meeting of the council of the CIS road authorities together with a meeting of the international association of transport and road infrastructure sector trade unions took place Thursday in Ashgabat.
Also in attendance were representatives of several international or regional organizations and some non-CIS countries.
As the agenda of the session shows, the corridors and connectivity have assumed higher priority in the regional narrative:
- state and prospects of development of transport complex of Turkmenistan;
- role of transport and transit corridors in ensuring international cooperation for sustainable development;
- implementation of Protocol on international highways of CIS and on their development at the entrances to the borders of neighboring countries;
- health and safety in the road sector;
- introduction of new technologies, materials, machines and laboratories in the road sector and others.
Zamirbek Aydarov, the minister of road transport of Kyrgyzstan and the chairman of the council said, “During these difficult times we need to work together – we connect lands, we connect people.”
The need to work together was the running theme in all the speeches and presentations during the session.
Dadebay Amandelgiyev, the chairman of the motorway authority of Turkmenistan also underlined the need for cooperation, pointing out that Turkmenistan had set in motion several processes related to corridor and connectivity.
Ms. Ekatrina Muravkina of the CIS executive council said that Turkmenistan, through its transport and transit initiatives, had shown vitality and comradeship. She said that CIS executive council appreciates the infrastructure and certification work being done by the member countries.
“The basic document on sustainable transport was adopted in 1998 and this meeting will be a great step forward,” said Muravkina.
Alexander Shurkin of the road workers union pointed out some area where urgent action is needed.
He said that the younger generation must be attracted to the road construction sector. He said that the younger generation forms only about 20% of the total road construction force. His statement struck a relevant cord as hardly a few participants of the conference seemed to be under 30.
Shurkin said that safety of the road workers needs attention. He said that conditions for the road workers were not positive and mortality rate among them because of industrial accidents was rather high.
He stressed the need for compliance with safety and hygiene standards.
He said that the outdated or inadequate personal safety gear and dresses including proper footwear were partly responsible for the high rate of accidents.
The defective systems of heating and cooling were also a source of concern, he said.
Shurkin said that the training is generally held on the old equipment while the road construction work has moved to new and modern machinery. As a result, he said, the newly workers sometimes arrive ill prepred for the work.
Buri Karimov, the deputy head of the council also voiced the concern about the safety measures for the road construction workers.
Buri Karimov and some speakers from Turkmenistan spoke about the various corridor and connectivity initiatives of Turkmenistan.
The intergovernmental council of CIS road authorities was established in 1992, to support the efforts of governments in pursuing harmonized road policy and deepening of integration processes. Establishment of the Council was in answer to the necessity of development of road sector as a generator of economic growth.
In 1998 the Intergovernmental Council of Roads gained status of the intergovernmental sectoral authority of CIS.
The activities of the Council are regulated by Charter and fundamental decisions of the Council of Heads of State and Heads of Government.
The members of the Council are ministers of transport and communications, road authorities of CIS. The associate members are executives of major industrial groups and associations, scientific and design organizations, profile universities. The Council maintains close business contacts with its working groups, as well as UNESCAP and others international organizations.
The Council is headed by the Chairman elected from Council members on a rotating basis in alphabetical order for a period of one year.
Secretariat of the Council is active since 1995. The head of the Secretariat is Buri Karimov. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Council.
The Council consists of 7 key working groups, Expert Research Council, Interstate Technical Committee “Road Infrastructure” and Board of Education.
One of the important directions of Council’s work is research and development of interstate standards. These regulatory documents are fundamental for the development of national projects. This is especially important for those CIS countries that do not have their travel research institutes.
The Council meets at least once a year. Prior to the current session, the Council had held 37 sessions, more than 80 joint and separate sessions of the working groups, 3 congresses of the CIS road workers, dozens of scientific conferences and a number of exhibitions, several international motor races.
The Council has considered so far over 300 issues concerning the road sector of CIS.
The Council has developed the following documents, adopted by the heads of governments:
– Protocol for international motor roads of Commonwealth of Independent States, approved by the Heads of Government on 11 September 1998 in Moscow.
– Agreement on weights and dimensions of vehicles involved in interstate motor road traffic by the roads of CIS member countries, adopted by the Council of Heads of CIS member-countries on 4 June 1999.
– Agreement on unified approach to the determination of fees for exceeding the maximum (normative) the weight and dimensions of vehicles involved in interstate motor road traffic by roads of CIS member countries, Methods to determine the amount of fees for transportation of such goods.
– Agreement on the introduction of international certificate of weighing the cargo vehicles at the territories of CIS member countries, adopted by the Council of CIS Heads of State on 16 April 2004 in Cholpon-Ata.
– Concept of improving operational reliability of bridges at motor roads of CIS member-countries for 2008 – 2015, approved byCouncil of CIS Heads of Government on 14 November 2008.