Transport Management Training

Geographic Focus:

Republic of Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrghyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Republic of Uzbekistan

Background and Objectives:

Professional transport staff and management in the TRACECA region have very little direct experience of international trade and transport practices. Awareness of the European transport and trade legislation, methods, systems, and commercial practices would enable them to implement compatible systems in their Republics and work effectively with EU counterparts. The overall objective was to ensure that as many operational staff as possible was acquainted with market oriented systems and administrative procedures suitable for adoption within the Region. This included training in marketing strategy, demand segmentation, business concepts and demand led business development.

Key Issues and Achievements:

The primary requirement was the identification of training needs, the drafting of the course material, buying and transporting training equipment, practical arrangements in the training locations, organising transport and accommodation and selection of candidates. Training was seen to be needed in competitive transport network planning, traffic forecasts, the dependency between demand and tariff levels, time of transport, as well as contractual, legal and regulatory aspects. Familiarisation with intermodal methods was also a key issue, to help foster regional and inter-operator co-operation within the transport and trade sectors. A series of seminars and training visits in Central Asia and Europe were held, focused on two sets of skill levels: Senior Management, and Middle Management and Trainers. The middle managers and trainers group of 122 people were trained for 10 days in Almaty, then a selected group of 35 travelled to Europe, where they visited transport companies, training institutions and authorities. Apart from a good quality transfer of know-how, the project generated a strong team spirit within the TRACECA state participants which enables the interchange of information and ideas to continue between them.

The project has diffused a general awareness of many aspects of international trade and transport practice. This has prepared beneficiaries for discussion of complex legal reform and restructuring issues within their industries, for which they were sorely unprepared beforehand. As further training is required for several years into the future, practically all TRACECA projects now include training and know-how transfer elements.