International Rail Freight Conference

MEMORANDUM

OF UNDERSTANDING ON RAILWAY TRANSPORT COOPERATION

The Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic, UIC, OSJD, CIFA, UNIFE, CIT, OTIF, CCTT, Russian Railways, Kazakhstan Railways, SNCF, ČD Cargo, PKP Cargo, OLTIS Group, JERID, hereinafter as parties,

• Emphasizing the importance of cooperation in railway transport, especially in realization of projects for passenger and cargo transport between Europe and Asia and the related support for development and deployment of the latest information technologies on the monitored Euro-Asian transport routes,
• Guided by the intention to encourage multilateral cooperation among the parties upon principles of partnerships and mutual benefits and confirming the effort to deepen the cooperation in the railway transportation, the parties reached an agreement in the following areas.
  • In compliance with the valid legislation of their states the parties shall make efforts to increase support and unification of their technological procedures and their IT support and to deploy appropriate vehicles in the entire Euro-Asian transport corridor.

To ensure realization of these objectives the parties especially strive to:

• • Deepen the cooperation based upon their roles in the international organizations which pursue activity in the field of the international railway transport (above all UIC, UNIFE, OSJD, OTIF, CIT, CIFA, etc.)
  • Encourage cooperation in the area of improvement and unification of transport and cargo technologies and their IT support in passenger and railway cargo transportation
  • Support the process of harmonization of the transport legislation, among others, in the dedicated support to wider use of the common consignment note CIM/SMGS and to increase the volumes of cargo transported with this document

The parties shall initiate creation of joint working groups for the individual cooperation areas, among others within the framework of the intergovernmental and joint committees for economic and scientific-technical cooperation.

The parties shall further support their cooperation in order to set priority objectives of their coordinated activities, to deepen their contacts and cooperation.

This memorandum is not an international treaty and it does not set any rights or obligations that would be governed by international law. This memorandum is done in English; the Russian and Chinese translation does not carry the validity of the source document.