T HE ROLE OF PIARC IN GLOBAL ROAD INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER Julio, 2001 Oscar de Buen Richkarday C3 Technical Committee Chairman

WORLD ROAD ASSOCIATION (PIARC) PIARC exists To Exchange Knowledge and Techniques on Roads and Transportation It was founded in It is the oldest international association concerned with Road Engineering, Road Policy and the Management of Road Networks It now has 97 Member Governments and more than 2000 members in 129 countries worldwide

PIARC´S VISION World leader in providing information on roads and road transport policy and practices within an integrated sustainable transport context PIARC´s means to serve its members: international forum for analysis and discussion of road and transportation related issues identifying and disseminating best practice supporting activities in developing countries and countries in transition developing efficient tools for decision making

PIARC´S VALUES To provide universal quality service to its members To be open, impartial and objective To promote sustainable and sound economic solutions To be customer driven To recognize road transport in an integrated transport and land use context To respect differing international road transport needs To be a leader in technology transfer

WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FOR PIARC? The process of openly gaining and freely sharing information about our experiences, solutions, technologies, and innovations In the road transport sector, as in any field, technology transfer can be a catalyst for accelerated economic, social and environmental development

WHAT DOES PIARC DO TO TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY? PIARC promotes sharing information about international best practice to serve all stakeholders in the road transport sector To achieve this, PIARC: organizes its activities around specialized Technical Committees organizes quadriennial World Road Congresses and Winter Road Congresses sponsors technical seminars and publishes a large number of documents including a quarterly magazine (Routes/Roads)

TECHNICAL COMMITTEES 20 Technical Committees develop four year work programs and are grouped under 5 strategic theme topics: 1.Road Technology 2.Road Transport, Liveability & Sustainable Development 3.Road & Road Transport Operations 4.Management & Administration of the Road System 5.Appropiate Levels of Road & Road Transport Development

PIARC TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TOOLS Technical committees, Special Fund, Seminar programme, Technology Transfer Centers WIN HDM4

SPECIAL FUND It is designed to enable professionals from developing countries and countries in transition to participate in PIARC´s activities and Technical Committee work It must help to reflect the whole range of PIARC member governments in PIARC activities The amount of the grant given is a function of GNP per capita Only countries classified as Low-income economies and Lower-middle-income economies by the World Bank may benefit from the Special Fund

SEMINAR PROGRAMME Each Technical Committee generally holds an average of two plenary meetings a year All technical committees should arrange two meetings in developing or emerging countries before the XXII World Road Congress in Durban in 2003 It is recommended that Technical Committees organize joint meetings with other professional organizations such as OECD, TRB, PIH and so on About 20 possible seminars are already in the program

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CENTERS In 1999, PIARC is Council passed a resolution to encourage the development of Technology Transfer Centers At present, PIARC has proposed 3 pilot National Technology Transfer Centres and 8 countries have submitted expressions of interest Technology Transfer Centers Activities: Maintain a reference library of key documents Maintain Internet access Maintain an up to date list of transport web-sites Produce a regular newsletter

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CENTERS Maintain a list of transport sector training courses Produce an annual report for the PIARC First Delegate Prepare strategies for using various media for information exchange Maintain independence from commercial interests and Evaluate performance as a Technology Transfer Center

WORLD INTERCHANGE NETWORK (WIN) WIN is a network of computer nodes at the service of the international road community The basic concept of WIN consists in putting people with questions in touch with people with answers through an efficient information and knowledge interchange network Nodes are the core of WIN Using WIN is completely free of charge

HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (HDM4) HDM4 is a software system for analyzing investment choices in road transport infrastructure The system assists users in making choices about Developing new roads Improving existing roads Maintaining existing roads Introducing new vehicle technology Introducing new ways for funding and managing road assets PIARC has promoted HDM4 development with other organizations and now is supporting its worldwide dissemination and use

CONCLUSIONS The information revolution makes understanding knowledge and development more urgent than before New communication technologies and lower computing costs are shrinking distances and eroding borders and time PIARC contributes to disseminate and share road related knowledge and helps to place it at the center of development policies