First meeting of Corporate Partnership Board set roadmap for corporate sector knowledge sharing with policy makers.

On 20 January, the International Transport Forum at the OECD opened a new chapter in its long-standing co-operation with the corporate world.

Twelve multi-national companies from seven countries met in Paris on 20 January to inaugurate the Forum’s new Corporate Partnership Board (CPB). The CPB will serve as the International Transport Forum’s mechanism for including expert knowledge from corporations in transport and related areas for policy analysis.

The CPB’s founding members are

• AB Volvo (Sweden – automotive)
• China Communications Construction Company Group (CCCC, China – infrastructure)
•  COLAS (France – infrastructure)
• China Ocean Shipping Group Company (COSCO, China – shipping)
• Ekol Logistics (Turkey – logistics)
•  Kapsch TrafficCom (Austria – Intelligent Transport Systems)
• Meridiam Infrastructure (France – financial sector)
• Michelin (France – automotive)
• Nissan (Japan – automotive)
• PTV Group (Germany – Intelligent Transport Systems)
• SerTrans (Turkey – logistics)
• Total (France – energy). 

The inaugural CPB meeting agreed on operating guidelines and created a standing committee to govern the board’s tactical business under the chairmanship of the ITF Secretary-General.

CPB activities will comprise the launch of policy analysis projects, events and publications on the basis of an annual work plan that will be agreed by members. Corporate Partners will propose the first round of projects in the coming two weeks, which will then be consolidated by the standing committee. Work on CPB projects is slated to start in March; presentation of first results is planned for October 2014.

“I am delighted that more than a dozen multi-national companies have agreed to become founding members of ITF’s Corporate Partnership Board”, said José Viegas, Secretary‑General of the ITF. “I laud their entrepreneurial spirit and look forward to working with them. The corporate world is at the frontier of new developments in the transport sector, and the Corporate Partnership Board will help the ITF to integrate the cutting-edge perspective of business into our analysis even better and provide relevant evidence-based advice to policy makers”.

“The CPB represents a very promising step forward in securing a confident dialogue between the public and private sector in the field of transport innovation. Tomorrow’s transport requires not only audacious technologies but also forward looking policies, worldwide” declared Patrick Oliva, Senior Vice-President, Michelin.

The CPB is expected to grow from the initial twelve members to a maximum of 50 members over three years. It supersedes the ITF Advisory Board.