As part of the UIC Latin America Region activity, an official visit to various entities related to the development of the railways in Ecuador and Colombia was held in the last week of May by Marc Guigon, Passenger Director and Latin American Region coordinator and Vanessa Pérez Miranda, Senior Advisor for the Passenger Department and the LARA Region.
During this mission, UIC representatives had the opportunity to present UIC’s activity to high-level representatives of the national administrations of Colombia and Ecuador.
In Colombia, Mr Guigon met representatives of the following main players: FDN (Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional – Financial Development Agency), ANI (Agencia Nacional de Infraestructura – National Agency of Infrastructures), DNP (Department Nacional de planificación – National Planification Department), Vice-minstry of Infrastructure and Ministry of Transport and Bonus, Banca de inversion, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
In Ecuador Mr Guigon met the Technical Secretariat of Public-Private Associations (agency depending on the Presidency) and representatives of Ecuador Railways.
This provided an occasion to exchange information about the current situation of the railways in the region, and to better understand the needs and challenges that the different actors of the region are facing to develop their railway activity. It helped clarify how UIC could help to develop the numerous projects already in place and ensure that their future operation be more efficient and sustainable.
This mission is part of the action plan of the UIC LARA region to create a Vision 2050 for the Region to foster the growth of rail in Latin America. International standards and disseminating knowledge are the two main factors in which UIC and its international network of experts could support the increasing number of railway projects in the region.
Recently Mr José Villafañe, President of ALAF and Chair of the UIC Latin America Region, and Mr Joubert Flores, Vice-Chair of the Region had a bilateral meeting with Mr Mamiński, President of the UIC and Mr Davenne, CEO of the UIC during which they highlighted the enormous potential of the region and their commitment to involve more railways and national entities to cooperate at international level within UIC.
They actively support the different actions of the LARA region, such as the most recent webinar organised on 17 May entitled “5G – New Technologies Applied to Railway Systems” with UIC’s Director for Telecommunications, Signalling and Digital Applications, Jean-Michel Evanghelou. This webinar was held entirely in Spanish and was extremely well received, with almost 150 people registering to attend online from various parts of Latin America. The video recording of the session can be accessed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCJ0ORRBrYc&t=4874s
To find out more about the UIC Latin America Region, please visit the dedicated website: https://uic.org/latin-america/
