IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto has addressed 14 ministers of transport in a closed door round table session during the 12th Transport and Communication Forum, hosted by the Turkish Ministry of Transport.
Umberto de Pretto stressed that as road transport will drive economic recovery, governments must ensure that road transport companies remain solvent with losses expected to reach USD 2 trillion since the outbreak of COVID.
He also called on governments to coordinate cross border sanitary measures, give workers priority access to vaccinations, implement a global electronic COVID certificate and use existing UN instruments, in particular electronic TIR and CMR, as well as e-permits and e-visas, to avoid physical contact at borders.
The transport ministers present were from governments and authorities in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Northern Cyprus, Palestine, Sudan and Turkey.