Azerbaijan, Baku, June 4 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
On June 5-8 Baku will host the 40th session of the ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Cooperation of Railways (OCR), Azerbaijan Railways spokesman Nadir Azmammadov told Trend on Monday.
The session will discuss the results of the various commissions of the organisation in 2011, a programme of activities for 2013 and subsequent years, budgets of the OCR committees (total for 2013, preliminary - for 2013), the primary draft agenda, as well as the issue of time and place of the next session of the ministerial meeting.
On June 5-6, the primary consideration by the authorised representatives of the session materials and projects will be held, and on June 7-8, the very plenary meeting of ministers of the OCR participating countries will be held.
OCR is an international organisation established at the ministerial meeting of rail transport on June 28, 1956 in Sofia (Bulgaria). The basis of existence and work of OCR is in the 'Regulations on OCR,' which has the character of an international treaty.
The group's main objectives are to develop international freight and passenger traffic, create a single rail transport space in the Eurasian region, improve the competitiveness of transcontinental rail lines and to promote technical progress and scientific and technical cooperation in the field of railway transport.
OCR has 27 members, of which 25 are active: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Estonia.
The following railways have observer status in OCR: German Railway, the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), the National Society of French Railways (SNVF), Finnish Railways (VR), Serbian Railways and Gyor-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway.
A new form of participation in the ORC is the great interest among companies and businesses whose activities are related to rail transport, namely the status of the associated company which was given to companies from Austria, Germany, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, France, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, working in the field of railway transport.