Sustainable transport fostering social, economic, environmental development

Transportation drives development – enabling trade, tourism and economic growth and allowing people to access jobs, services, education and the interactions that help create fulfilled lives. Sustainable transport, by extension, drives sustainable development, advancing the people-centered goals while protecting and preserving the planet and its resources for generations to come.

The conference, held earlier this month, was led by Anatoly Karpov, president of the International Association of Peace Foundations, and Eva Molnar, director of the transport division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

Amar More, CEO of Kale Logistics Solutions, was a keynote speaker at the conference: “In spite of having several e-cargo tools, there is still data duplication, excessive paperwork and challenges with supply chain visibility. The automation in the industry is heterogeneous which is leading to a lack of data exchange and poor visibility for shipments. These result in higher inventory in supply chain and hence higher logistics costs.”

Need for disrupting the inefficient supply chain

Emphasising the need for disrupting the inefficient supply chain cycle, he added: “Technology will be playing a very critical role in the freight industry, multi-modal cargo community system is a breakthrough innovation for the industry that helps the exporters, importers, forwarders, customs brokers, custodians, ground handlers, airlines, shipping lines, chambers of commerce, customs, local regulatory authorities exchange data with each other digitally using several forms of electronic data interchange (EDI).”

The two-day conference featured plenary sessions as well as parallel thematic discussions on various sustainable transport-related topics, including railway transport as a key driver of sustainable transport, sustainable air cargo, research and innovation, digitalisation of the freight and passenger transport documents, facilitating international trade by creating multimodal digital cargo communities and specific situations and policies of few countries.