Astana to host International Passenger Forum

ASTANA. KAZINFORM International Passenger Forum will be held in Astana in early September 2017 as decided at the 66th session of the CIS Member States Rail Transport Council in Moscow, National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy press-service reports.

The organizers have invited railway top managements of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to the Forum that will coincide with Expo 2017 International Specialized Exhibition in Astana.

First Vice President of Russian Railways Anatoly Krasnoscshok referred to Expo 2017 as the event significant not only for Kazakhstan but for the rest of the Commonwealth countries as well. "We set a high value on this event. The exhibition theme is of great current interest as the green technologies are emerging all over the world. Improvement of railway environmental safety is very important", Krasnoscshok says.

Georgian Railway CEO Mamuka Bakhtadze emphasizes that "the society and business community, in particular, must be more aware of the fact that "the greenest" of all is rail transport. It produces 2.5pct of total air pollutant emissions whereas motor vehicles account for 73pct. Such events as EXPO must help to understand and, what is more, implement environmentally safe technologies".

Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Hussein Ashuri is confident that large-scale international expositions make positive impact on the relations between countries, companies.

Peter Kucherenko, Chairman of the Directorate of the CIS Rail Transport Council, considers that the cutting-edge developments will be exhibited at Expo 2017 in Astana.

"Kazakhstan is preparing for the international exhibition in a very responsible manner. We will have an opportunity to adopt a lot of things exhibited there in terms of transport and other fields. Within the exhibition we will also discuss the passenger rail transportation issues", Kucherenko said.

As a reminder, the members of the CIS Member States Rail Transport Council session in November 2015 in Tashkent signed the Agreement for developing cooperation in environmental protection. International Center for Rail Transport Ecological Safety was established.