On 28th February, 2018, New Year Meeting on Belt and Road International Transport Alliance (BRITA) & World Transport Convention (WTC) was convened in Beijing, China. Over 50 delegates from over 20 foreign embassies in China, including Russian Embassy in Beijing, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Beijing, Nigeria Embassy China, Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Beijing and Australian Embassy Beijing, and from local branches of such international organizations as UNEP, IRU and iRAP, as well as China domestic units and enterprises in fields of transport management, construction and scientific research, attended this Meeting.

The Meeting was moderated by Mr Liu Wenjie, Vice President & Secretary-General of China Highway & Transportation Society (CHTS). Mr. Weng Mengyong, President of CHTS, together with those distinguished guests as Mr. Zhang Xiaojie, Deputy Director General of Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Transport, P.R. China; Mr. Liu Yanbing, Deputy Director-General of Department of Academic and Societies Affairs, China Association for Science and Technology; Ms. Ina Marčiulionytė, Ambassador of Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Beijing; and Mr. Usman Bakori Aliyu, Ambassador of Nigeria Embassy China presented and deliverd speeches and remarks. 

(Mr. Weng Mengyong, President of CHTS, delivering the opening speech)

BRITA and WTC are the two key tasks initiated and undertaken by CHTS, and Mr. Weng Mengyong in his opening speech introduced the preparotary progress of the two tasks.

As pointed out by Mr. Weng, BRITA, aiming at serving the implementation of the Belt & Road Initiative,promoting the innovation, fusion and development of global transport technologies and the dissemination, transformation and popularization of related scientific and technological achievements,shall be commonly establsihed and operated by all the interested stakeholders from the countries along the B & R routes as well as related international and regional organizations; meanwhile all the achievements and fruits arising from the BRITA shall be shared to all.BRITA will provide a platform for smooth and effective cooperation on transport-related information sharing, personnel & technical exchange and industrial collaboration, thus gradually forming into one regular mechanism serving the global transport industry. 

Jointly hosted by China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the Ministry of Transport of China (MOT) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), WTC 2018 is scheduled to convene at China National Convention Center, Beijing from June 18 to 21, 2018. Especially, on June 18, the BRITA Inaugural Meeting will be held, following the Beijing Consensus published at WTC 2017, i.e. the Proposal for Initiating the Establishment of the Belt and Road International Transport Alliance. After establishment, BRITA will co-host the annual WTC, and WTC will serve as a permanent platform of cooperation and exchange for BRITA.

At the New Year Meeting, delegates also conducted deep discussion and provided valuable suggestions on BRITA’s establishment matters, missions & responsibilities, and other corresponding issues such as how can BRITA well serve the infrastructure connectivity. It was pushed forward that, the scope of the BRITA membership should be further expanded to mainly including but not limited to the internationalized organizations among the countries along the B & R routes; international cooperation on transport technologies, standards and industrial collaboration should be further strengthened, to promote the outstanding sci-tech achievements in transport field into worldwide application; and more study and exchange opportunities for transport engineers, managers and researchers should be provided under the framework of BRITA.

All the delegates unanimously agreed that to set up BRITA very much aligned with the development demand of the B & R Initiative and they would offer necessary support to the establishment of BRITA and convening of WTC 2018.  

（Group Photo of all the delegates）