High-Level Meeting on Deepening Digitalization of International Rail Transport in Asia-Pacific
- OVERVIEW
The High-Level Meeting on Deepening Digitalization of International Rail Transport in Asia-Pacific will be held from 13 to 15 March 2025 in Xi’an, China, jointly organized by ESCAP Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia, the Global Sustainable Transport Innovation and Knowledge Center (GSTIKC) of the Ministry of Transport of China, and the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) Secretariat. Guided by the shared commitment to advance sustainable rail connectivity in North-East Asia and across the members of Trans-Asian Railway Network, ESCAP, GSTIKC and GTI are leveraging their partnerships to engage rail officials on promoting efficient and resilient rail transport including deepening rail digitalization in the region.
To fully harnessing the emerging opportunities from rail transport, the Working Group on the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) Network at its Eighth Meeting held in September 2023 adopted a new annex to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Trans-Asian Railway containing “Guiding principles on electronic information exchange between railways and among railways and control agencies”. The Working Group also adopted the Strategy 2030 on Accelerating Rail Digital Transformation in Asia-Pacific to deepen digitalization of rail transport in Asia-Pacific. Furthermore, the Moscow Declaration on Accelerating Digital Transformation of Railway Transport endorsed during the Round Table on Accelerating Digital Transformation of Rail Transport in the Asia-Pacific Region organized by ESCAP together with Russian Railway in May 2024 also called for concrete actions to implement the new annex and the rail digitalization strategy.
Given the continuing importance of the issue, the high-level meeting is being organized under the projects being implemented by ESCAP, namely, Promoting cross-border electronic information exchange for efficient railway transport and transit in East and North-East Asia and Leveraging Trans-Asian Railway network for efficient and resilient transport networks in ASEAN and beyond and will have following objectives:
- share recent experience with rail digitalization issues in the region including on high-speed rail
- discuss initial proposal on a regional railway interconnection standard innovation platform
- disseminate findings/results of the project on promoting cross-border electronic information exchange for efficient railway transport and transit in East and North-East Asia
- organize a capacity building workshop on rail connectivity between countries in Southeast Asia and North and Central Asia
- PROGRAMME
13 May 2025
09:00 - 10:00
High-level Opening Session
Opening statements
- Shaanxi Province
- ESCAP
- Global Sustainable Transport Innovation and Knowledge Center
- China Railway
Greater Tumen Initiative Secretariat
10:30 - 13:00
Session 1: Rail digitalization strategies and policies of the members of Trans-Asian Railway Network
Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) members would be invited to present their strategies and policies to deepen rail digitalization in the region.
- Country presentations
14:00 - 15:15
Session 2: Organizational initiatives to support rail digitalization among member countries
The session would focus on organizational initiatives to support rail digitalization among the member States. ESCAP, OSJD, OTIF, ECE would share their work on rail digitalization, in particular, ESCAP would present the new annex to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian railway network and the Strategy 2030 on Accelerating Rail Digital Transformation in Asia-Pacific, both of which were adopted at the eighth meeting of the Working Group on Trans-Asian Railway.
15:30 - 17:30
Session 3: Promoting cross-border electronic information exchange for efficient railway transport and transit in East and North-East Asia
ESCAP would share outcomes/findings from the implementation of the project on cross border electronic information exchange for efficient railway transport, involving China, Mongolia and the Russian Federation, that could be useful for other TAR members.
14 May 2025
09:00 - 11:30
Session 4: Evolution of high-speed railway (HSR), lessons learned and way forward for member countries
The session would review global experience in the development of HSR and lessons learned. Member States would be invited to share experiences and related challenges. The session would also aim to identify HSR issues for deliberation within the ambit of the TAR Network. ESCAP would present draft guidelines on HSR development in South-East Asia.
The session would be led by the National Railway Administration of the People's Republic of China / China Academy of Railway Sciences and ESCAP. (tbc)
11:45 - 13:00
Session 5: Addressing rail cyber threats through a regional framework
ESCAP would present a draft framework on rail cybersecurity (already discussed), as a way to address rail cybersecurity threats. TAR members would be invited to share the experiences on addressing rail cyberthreats in the region.
14:00 - 15:15
Session 6: Regional railway interconnection standard innovation platform
The session would elaborate on the proposal to set up a regional railway standards connectivity scheme to enhance efficiency of international railway transport in the region. TAR members and organizations would be invited to share their experience/cases in rail standards settings for international railway transport as well as their insights/suggestions for a collaborative mechanism for railway standard connectivity scheme.
The session would be led by GSTIKC and ESCAP.
15:30 - 16:30
Session 6: Regional railway interconnection standard innovation platform…contd./
15 May 2025
09:00 - 10:30
Capacity Building Workshop on Rail connectivity between South-East Asia and North and Central Asia
The capacity building workshop is under the project on leveraging Trans-Asian railway network for efficient and resilient transport rail network in ASEAN and beyond being implemented by ESCAP.
ESCAP would expand on the draft road map on rail connectivity between two subregions that was presented at the side event of the Eighth session of the Committee on Transport held in November 2024. TAR members from South-East Asia and North and Central Asia would be invited to share their initiatives and suggestions to further strengthen rail connectivity between the two subregions and on related issues.
11:00 - 12:30
Capacity Building Workshop on Rail connectivity between South-East Asia and North and Central Asia…contd./
12:30 - 13:30
Concluding Session
The session would consider an appropriate outcome document affirming the continued importance of rail digital transformation in the region including cooperating on the railway standards connectivity scheme, promoting high speed rail in Asia-Pacific, implementing the Strategy 2030 on Rail Digitalization as well as the New Annex to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network.
15:00 - 18:00
Field/Technical Visit
- DOCUMENT
Programme
PDF
for more information, please contact
Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia +82-32-458-6600 [email protected]