CEE Railways 2008
Conference Proceedings available to order now!
EastEuro Link hosted its CEE railways forum in Austria on 25th April 2008, with participants and speakers from all over the region in attendance. Taking place in the Hotel Boeck Hotel nearby Vienna, the event was supported by a host of associate sponsors and media partners involved in the rail sector.
Proceedings were opened by the chairman, Mr. Daniel Giblin, Director and rail specialist of EC Harris who provided an useful overview of the CEE market and chaired the event excellently throughout the day. This was followed by thorough outline of the one of the key problems for market opening – financial instability of CEEC railways, presented by Mr. Paul Guitink, CER. After the insightful presentation on financing of rail vehicles by Mr. Paul Berdugo, a live discussion among the participants took place.
Following a lively networking coffee break that also enabled delegates to establish new useful business contacts, the next session commenced with a very interesting presentation on the Hungarian Zahony development project by Ms. Agnes Henter, Director, Project Management, ITD Hungary. Apart from the strategic geographical position of this region, Ms. Henter highlighted many other advantages for the investors in this region such as modern and integrated logistic services, advanced business infrastructure and outstanding financial incentives.
This presentation was followed by discussion on PPP opportunities for the rail in the region, stimulated by two excellent presentations of Mr. Tim Ashwin, Consultant of Scott Wilson Group and Mr. Jakub Slavik, Technical Director of Pro-Serv. It was said that PPP was increasingly of interest for CEE countries and although the catching the right constellation of stakeholders may be difficult, it is still worth of trying.
Following an extended networking opportunity accompanied by some delicious food, the afternoon session turned the attention towards Austrian transport policy perspective on rail infrastructure in Eastern and South-eastern Europe with a presentation delivered by Mr. Helmut Adelsberger, Head of department in Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport. He pointed out that strategic infrastructure planning did not mean only to cope with traffic demand but also to actively shape space.
The next presentation was a comprehensive case study from the perspective of a freight forwarder, delivered by Mr. Miklos Horvath, General Director of Masped, followed by Mr. Kurt Bauer, Manager of Railictics who focused on the subject of the passenger services indicating long distance passenger services as an important part of the nation’s mobility.
After a highly informative day for everyone, the chairman closed conference by summarising the wide range of ideas and discussions that had taken place throughout the day. The delegates were then free to engage in additional networking opportunities at the cocktail reception.
Overall, the conference was a great success and brought together a number of influential players in the CEE rail industry to engage in numerous discussions and listen to some excellent insights into the sector.
EastEuro Link thanks all delegates and speakers who attended the event and hopes to see many of the same faces at its upcoming railways conferences.
To hear information about future events of this kind, or to enquire about purchasing presentations, please contact us
london@easteurolink.co.uk or call + 44 (0) 207 275 8020.
