“New ideas, an innovative approach and targeted international cooperation are required to enable transportation to continue to support economic growth in future”, Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics said on Thursday in Budapest in his opening speech at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Transport Senior Officials Meeting.

Mr. Palkovics pointed out that without a high level of digitalisation, land, sea and air transport networks will not be global. “And without reducing carbon dioxide emissions it will be impossible to realise sustainability in transportation”, he added.

“As a result, in accordance with common directives, digitalisation, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the development of transport infrastructure are priority tasks within the sector. The participants of the ASEM Transport Senior Officials Meeting are discussing these issues”, he told the press.

“The task of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology is to assure a sustainable future for upcoming generations using modern equipment and innovative solutions”, the Minister said. “Over 20 percent of Hungary’s GDP is derived indirectly from the digital economy, which is the 3rd highest ratio in Europe”, he highlighted.

“For this reason, Hungary would like to be at the forefront of connected transportation within the fields of automated road, rail and air transport. We want to exploit the advantages provided by the country’s geographical location and would like to provide a bridging interface solution between the western and eastern countries”, the Minister said.

As an example, he mentioned that Hungary has achieved significant results in transport innovation with the recently inaugurated vehicle test track in Zalaegerszeg, adding that another significant result with relation to the sector’s digitalisation was the introduction of the electronic road toll payment system seven years ago, which covers 6500 kilometres of Hungary’s road network.

The Minister said the setting up of an integrated community transport information system was one of the tasks for the near future. According to plan, a complex system serving the comfort of passengers will be introduced from 2020, including a real-time timetable, which is unique in international comparison.

According to Mr. Palkovics, in the interests of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and keeping emissions at a low level, the ratio of rail and waterborne transport must be increased in intercontinental transportation. In the interests of this, the Hungarian Government is modernising the Hungarian stretch of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line in cooperation with China.

The Minister suggested to the ASEM Transport Senior Officials that they should develop common solutions in the interests of sustainable, digitalised transportation.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was established in 1996 as a forum for dialogue and cooperation between Europe and Asia. Its goal is to reinforce relations between the two continents. The ASEM’s 53 partners include the European Union, the 28 EU member states, Norway, Switzerland, 21 Asian countries and the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

(MTI)