MENA Center hosts urban transport leadership event

The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Center for Transport Excellence recently hosted the second Nurturing Leaders of Urban Transport Planning Forum in Dubai.

Participants included businesses involved with urban transport and planning from both the MENA region and around the world.

Held in conjunction with the World Bank, the forum was meant to encourage and support leaders to further develop their abilities and aptitudes for their roles in urban transport planning.  It included educational opportunities for participants, including self-learning sessions, technical visits and mass training sessions.

The main topics revolved around management of roads and lanes, figuring out core challenges faced by cosmopolitan cities, methodology governing planning of urban transport networks, planning of mass transport and assessing options, and the roles of governments, finance and public-private partnership.

"Holding and participating in this forum for the second year running has generated a positive impact as the MENA Center for Transport Excellence is always keen on keeping abreast of the latest developments of public transport and modern strategies adopted in setting up and  streamlining entities responsible for sound urban transport planning, and operating mass transit systems in modern cities worldwide," Abdul Aziz Malik, the chairman of the Higher Committee of MENA Center for Transport Excellence, said. "Upon the completion of the first edition of Nurturing Leaders of Urban Transport Planning Forum last year, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of results achieved and lessons learnt in order to explore staging the event annually in [the] future."