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Dubai to be venue of transport meet

DUBAI — Dubai will host the first UITP Regional Business Forum for Public Transport Industry in Middle East and North Africa from January 15 to 17, it was announced at a Press conference on Monday.

Obeid Salem Al Shamsi, Assistant Director-General of Dubai Municipality for Administrative and General Services Affairs, said the conference, organised in co-operation with the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), will discuss the emerging market for Public Transport industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

“This event is extremely important due to the economic, demographic, environmental and traffic issues which are collectively posing a big challenge, not only to the MENA countries, but to the world at large,” Al Shamsi said.

He added that the event would be attended by directors and senior management of public transport operators, top officials of public transport authorities, national and regional ministers, directors of business development and directors of sales.

“We are delighted to welcome the delegates of this event to Dubai, the city, which is widely known as a host of local, regional and international conferences and other such events,” he said.

Al Shamsi said Dubai is currently bidding to host the UITP World Congress in 2009. “The recent meeting of the UITP Administrative Council held in Moscow had short-listed Dubai along with three other cities, Brussels, Lyon and Vienna for hosting the 2009 event,” he said.

Hosting this big event would be a great challenge for the organisers as a huge number of major players in the field of public transport such as manufacturers, suppliers, operators and specialists would be attending it, he said.

The DM official said that hosting big events is becoming a habit for Dubai. “We are hosting the 2007 World Dental Congress, which is expected to be attended by more than 40,000 people from all over the world,” he said, adding that the civic body has made wide ranging preparations for hosting the UITP Regional Business Forum including an organising committee to make the event a big success.

“These preparations emphasise the important role of public transport in tackling the increasing population density in addition to the diversified socio-economic activity in the urban areas of the region,” he said.

Abdulaziz Malik, Director, Public Transport Department, Dubai Municipality, said the event, which will be held at Dubai International Convention Centre, will start with MENA Steering Committee of the UITP on January 15, which is restricted for the members of the committee.

• UAE