Skip to main content

Argentina, Israel and Morocco join International Transport Forum

In a key development, Argentina, Israel and Morocco are joining the International Transport Forum (ITF). The decision was made at a summit of international transport ministers held in the German city of Leipzig, who unanimously approved membership of the countries. Of particular note is the appointment of Morocco, the first full ITF member country from Africa. Housed by the OECD in Paris (France), the ITF is an intergovernmental organisation that acts as a think tank for transport policy and organises the
June 4, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
In a key development, Argentina, Israel and Morocco are joining the 1102 International Transport Forum (ITF). The decision was made at a summit of international transport ministers held in the German city of Leipzig, who unanimously approved membership of the countries. Of particular note is the appointment of Morocco, the first full ITF member country from Africa.

Housed by the OECD in Paris (France), the ITF is an intergovernmental organisation that acts as a think tank for transport policy and organises the Annual Summit of transport ministers. ITF is the only global body that covers all transport modes. This decision takes the number of ITF member countries from 54 to 57.

Previously, Morocco was an observer country since the creation of ITF in 2006. “Morocco’s accession will be a plus for the Forum. It is also a positive development for Morocco,” said Mohamed Najib Boulif, Morocco’s deputy minister of Transport. “The geostrategic position of Morocco in the Mediterranean, in Africa, in the MENA region: these are all strategic assets for Morocco’s participation.”

Israel joins the ITF after becoming a member of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2010. “Israel is keen to contribute to the work of the ITF, and to be inspired by it,” said Moshe Kamhi, Director of Economic International Organisations in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the occasion of Israel’s accession.

Argentina is the second ITF member country from South America, following the accession of Chile in 2012. Argentina has been actively involved with the ITF’s permanent working group on road safety (known as 3444 IRTAD) since 2009. It has been a leading force in establishing the Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory (OISEVI), for which IRTAD operates a Spanish-language database with road crash information.

Simon Bridges, minister of Transport of New Zealand, the 2015 ITF presidency country said, “New Zealand welcomes Morocco, Argentina and Israel to the International Transport Forum. The expanded membership of the ITF promises the opportunity to promote an increasingly global outlook for the work of the ITF.”

ITF secretary-general José Viegas also expressed his satisfaction at the accession of the three countries. “ITF is the global, all-modes transport organisation. These three new members make the ITF even more global, and they bring significant transport experience to the table,” said Viegas. “We will be working with the governments of Argentina, Israel and Morocco to ensure that they get value for their policy making out of their membership.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Indra Sistemas joins European Commission’s study Harmony
    December 19, 2017
    Spanish global IT business Indra Sistemas is to join Harmony, a pan-European multimodal transport connectivity study. Harmony aims to develop technologies for integrating real-time data from different transport users and operators to improve multimodal information services. Indra will be focussed on a pilot project in Madrid, developed with the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Indra is working with research groups G@TV and TranSYT from the Polytechnic University of Madrid along with support from Grupo
  • Latin America invests in infrastructure growth
    February 15, 2012
    Travelling in one of the world's most diverse regions is not always easy, but spectacular engineering feats will make life easier as Patrick Smith reports. Five years ago a report from the World Bank noted that infrastructure in most of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) had improved over the previous ten years.
  • IRF senior executives professional development 2012
    April 11, 2012
    Register today for one of the world’s foremost continuing professional development programmes tailored to the needs of senior road professionals. Organised by the University of Birmingham (UK) in association with IRF Geneva, the Senior Road Executives (SRE) Programme has established an international reputation as an essential ‘must attend’ annual event for senior road professionals from across the world.
  • Mixed US transportation outlook for 2012 according to ARTBA
    April 26, 2012
    The outlook for the 2012 transportation construction market is mixed, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association's (ARTBA). The 2012 Transportation Construction Market forecast from ARTBA shows that the industry will face uncertain times during next year.