On 15 September 2022, a contract signing ceremony for the Asia-Pacific training session was held, both at UIC and online, and was opened by Mr. Vincent Vu, Director of Institutional Relations & Coordination Asia-Pacific. Mr. Na Hee-Seung, President & CEO of KORAIL, Mr. Ji Yong-Tae, Executive Director of Trans Korean Railway and the KORAIL Overseas Business Division, Mr. Cho Ho-Kwon, Director of the International Cooperation Department at KORAIL, Mr. Baek Hak-Seon, Deputy Director of International Cooperation, Mr. François Davenne, UIC Director General, and Mr. Beom In-Chul from KORAIL were also in attendance.
The ceremony celebrated the 15th anniversary of the International Railway Training Centre for UIC Asia-Pacific’s (IRaTCA’s) establishment and was an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between UIC and KORAIL.
Mr. Cho Ho-Kwon spoke about the cooperation and relationship between UIC and KORAIL. He recalled that UIC was established in 1922 to promote railways worldwide, to foster interoperability, and to support members in their efforts to develop new business. He explained that KORAIL joined UIC as an associate member in 1978 and then became an active member in 2003, even serving as chair of the UIC Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly from 2009 to 2012. In December 2007, the IRaTCA was established at the Asia Railway Summit, and, between 2009 and 2019, provided training sessions for 202 trainees from 30 nations.
Then, Mr. Na Hee-Seung gave a speech honouring the 20th anniversary of KORAIL’s active membership at UIC and outlined how official UIC training is spearheading development of the railways in the region. KORAIL has also provided training programs and wishes to continue to do so for the Asia-Pacific region.
He added that despite railways worldwide having a difficult time because of the Covid-19 pandemic, he is now seeing hope for restarting railway development. He underlined that since KORAIL became an active member in 2003, the company has been very active in both developing the railways in the region and in managing the UIC Regional Assembly. He also mentioned that the Asia-Pacific region is showing good economic growth and high levels of investment.
Mr. Na continued by highlighting the fruitful cooperation with UIC in developing international specifications and his wishes for UIC’s continued support in various areas such as innovation, especially in light of KORAIL’s plans to organise an international seminar regarding best practices including long freight trains in November this year.
Mr. François Davenne supported these statements and reiterated KORAIL’s almost 45 year long relationship with UIC and their important role on the UIC Executive Board in the Asia-Pacific region.
He said, “since 2007, UIC has had the great honour of collaborating with KORAIL through the IRaTCA, which aims to improve engineering and the management of training among UIC members. There is great potential for railways in the ASEAN, Central Asian, and South Asian regions to meet challenges surrounding sustainable development and the demand for transporting people and goods.”
As a solution, UIC has identified training to be central to its activities, he added, mentioning the UIC Asia-Pacific/United Nations workshops and training which will start on 3rd October and to which all of UIC’s Korean members are warmly invited. These sessions are an annual event and are a testament to UIC and KORAIL’s collaboration.
Davenne also stated that he was pleased to announce that the next IRaTCA session would finally take place on 31st October 2022, after having been postponed in 2021, and it would deal with the railways’ role and national programmes to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.
He rounded off his speech by thanking Mr. Na for having worked with UIC for such a long time and how his kind words for UIC’s centenary were very much appreciated. Thanks to new and upcoming opportunities there would be more chances to work with him and KORAIL even in the coming months.
Following these keynote speeches, a video clip of KORAIL’s first commercial test run of a long freight train was shown to the audience.
Finally, the contract “2023 TRAINING SESSION BY THE INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY TRAINING CENTRE FOR UIC ASIA (IRATCA)” was signed by Mr. Davenne and Mr. Na. The training session will be held from 17 to 21 April 2023, with the theme of “Railway Safety with Smart Technology”.
