With almost 300 registered participants, the webinar held on 14 February 2023 on corridor development in South and Latin-America organised by UIC and FIATA was an enormous success. The event, held in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation into English and Portuguese, was moderated by Cynthia Perišić Ivandić, FIATA ABIA Chair, ALOG, Chile.

José Nicanor Villafañe, President of the UIC Latin American Region, gave a warm welcome to the participants and expressed his delight at being able to open the webinar and his hope that the meeting would be highly productive for the freight operators. He mentioned how the activities on the railway system in the Latin American region always attract high levels of participation, and highlighted that other events like the session would be held and confirmed the region’s continued support.

François Davenne, UIC Director General, gave a keynote speech highlighting UIC’s global role by elaborating on some of the key issues that UIC is working on, stating that for more than 10 years, UIC has been driving corridor development to leverage the expansion of the rail freight sector. He also outlined that global organisations like UIC have an important role to play in combatting universal rail challenges, such as energy transition which has increasingly taken centre stage due to recent world events.

Stéphane Graber, FIATA Director General, discussed how FIATA represents the heart of multimodality, supporting the promotion of best practices in the supply chain and providing digital standards and services to their members.

During the second part of the webinar:

• The current developments in transport and logistics corridors were presented, including the evolution of railway freight in Latin America (LATAM), the global regulatory platform for inland transport, and the challenges and opportunities for corridor development in the LATAM region
• Corridor developments from a policy perspective were shown, with presentations on the rail system and developments in Brazil and in Argentinian multimodal transport
• Business insights into corridor development were presented, with insights from Chile regarding logistics in Santiago and San Antonio, challenges with freight, the multimodal railway corridors in Brazil, and the Port of Panama’s history and evolution

Philip Van den bosch, UIC Freight Deputy Director, concluded the webinar by highlighting the region’s potential and development levels, as well as underpinning how financing is one of the region’s biggest challenges. Ole A. Hagen from FIATA, expressed his satisfaction with the event’s organisation and that the joint UIC-FIATA seminar would not be the last.

Assess the presentations here: https://uic.org/events/LATAM-Corridor-Seminar-UIC-FIATA

Watch the recording here: