IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto met with Geneva-based ambassadors of landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) yesterday to discuss how to lessen the impact of the pandemic.
The ambassadors agreed that a coordinated and robust approach is the only way to address the ongoing sanitary, social and economic challenges that confront LLDCs, which risk losing hard-won development gains from recent years.
Taking stock of the pandemic’s impact, the meeting focused on initiatives and instruments to facilitate the flow of goods across borders without the need for physical contact, including the use of the TIR system and its digital tools.
Umberto de Pretto reiterated IRU’s call to implement key international conventions on transport and transit, such as the TIR Convention, to help landlocked countries become land-linked trading nations.
To keep goods moving across borders and support economic recovery, governments should also introduce digital, global and mutually recognised vaccination certificates for commercial drivers and include professional drivers in the priority lists of national vaccination programmes.