The first Middle East conference and exhibition on ITS, held in December 2006 in Dubai, was opened by His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Al- Mogbel, the president of 1697 ITS Arab and Deputy Minister of Transport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The two-day conference, the theme of which was 'Shaping the Future with ITS Solutions', focused on traffic safety, congestion, security and demand management.
H.E Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel said, "ITS Arab will play a vital role in the development of sustainable ITS deployments across the Middle East and North Africa in partnership with the regional and international ITS community".
Fabrizio Minarini, Head of Sector, Intelligent Car Initiative,1690 European Commission, praised ITS Arab and expressed support from the European Commission to the conference.
Richard Barnes, London Assembly Member: "It is now an accepted policy across all the main political parties in the United Kingdom that ITS is an absolute must. The problem we have is that we are not sure what ITS means, why we are doing it, and we have not fully developed an integrated approach." Barnes shared his experience in policy development that provided thought-provoking debates and provided a political balance from a European perspective. His contribution provided the link between ITS and security, reinforcing the importance of developing and communicating clear ITS policy objectives to the wider public.
Barnes's view was echoed by the Dr Essam Sharaf, former Minister of Transport, Egypt, who suggested the use of asset management systems as an approach to communicating ITS objectives and benefits to politicians and the general public. Dr Sharaf added, "Studies from around the world have concluded that the transport infrastructure satisfies both the natural human desire to mobility, as well as being vital for economical prosperity, and therefore ranks transport infrastructure as one of the most important projects." "The key word is integration, by marrying transport infrastructure with ITS technologies we will see a completely new type of transport infrastructure that looks the same but will provide a new way of delivering mobility function." The business case for ITS benefits was reinforced by Riyadh Dabbo, Managing Director, Arab Road Safety Organisation, when he presented the shocking statistics regarding human losses, which show that within the Arab countries there are 32,000 traffic fatalities every year. Worldwide the transport fatalities total 1.2 million with 12 million injuries. "In terms of human losses, we have a 9/11 every day around the world," Dabbo said.
The two-day conference, the theme of which was 'Shaping the Future with ITS Solutions', focused on traffic safety, congestion, security and demand management.
H.E Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel said, "ITS Arab will play a vital role in the development of sustainable ITS deployments across the Middle East and North Africa in partnership with the regional and international ITS community".
Fabrizio Minarini, Head of Sector, Intelligent Car Initiative,
Richard Barnes, London Assembly Member: "It is now an accepted policy across all the main political parties in the United Kingdom that ITS is an absolute must. The problem we have is that we are not sure what ITS means, why we are doing it, and we have not fully developed an integrated approach." Barnes shared his experience in policy development that provided thought-provoking debates and provided a political balance from a European perspective. His contribution provided the link between ITS and security, reinforcing the importance of developing and communicating clear ITS policy objectives to the wider public.
Barnes's view was echoed by the Dr Essam Sharaf, former Minister of Transport, Egypt, who suggested the use of asset management systems as an approach to communicating ITS objectives and benefits to politicians and the general public. Dr Sharaf added, "Studies from around the world have concluded that the transport infrastructure satisfies both the natural human desire to mobility, as well as being vital for economical prosperity, and therefore ranks transport infrastructure as one of the most important projects." "The key word is integration, by marrying transport infrastructure with ITS technologies we will see a completely new type of transport infrastructure that looks the same but will provide a new way of delivering mobility function." The business case for ITS benefits was reinforced by Riyadh Dabbo, Managing Director, Arab Road Safety Organisation, when he presented the shocking statistics regarding human losses, which show that within the Arab countries there are 32,000 traffic fatalities every year. Worldwide the transport fatalities total 1.2 million with 12 million injuries. "In terms of human losses, we have a 9/11 every day around the world," Dabbo said.
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