On 13 and 14 November 2013 in Budapest, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the CCTT (Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation), the general assembly of this association was held. It brought together more than 300 people from 25 countries under the chairmanship of Mr Alexander Misharin, Vice-President of RZD, the management of Mr Gennady Bessonov, Secretary-General of CCTT, his deputy Ms Natalia Stepanova, and the hosting of Mrs Ilona David, CEO and Chair of Hungarian Railways MAV.

This meeting – since the last one held in Helsinki a year ago – was the occasion to hear from over 40 speakers on the progress made on all aspects of development of Trans-Siberian corridors.

In this respect Mr Loubinoux, UIC Director-General, had the opportunity to explain to the audience the collaborative work undertaken with a number of other bodies and in particular with the CCTT on a common approach and in particular in the area of safety with the workshops on border crossings and international rail corridors and on a number of aspects examined by a group of technical experts which also took place on 14 November.

Mr Loubinoux also stressed the importance of the team approach and in particular the role played by the CCTT in a number of aspects such as legal, administrative, financial, geographical and technical. He was also very happy to work in an increasingly collaborative way with a number of bodies including CIT, OTIF, UN, NATO, and of course CCTT.

This general assembly was also the occasion for excellent networking among a number of participants, many of whom were already members or partners of UIC and Mr Loubinoux wanted to highlight the good spirit of cooperation and the very warm welcome by MAV at these meetings.