TASHKENT HOSTS AFGHAN RELIEF-CARGO CONFERENCE

Tashkent (Uzbekistan), May 28, 2002. A two-day International conference "Aviation logistics in peacekeeping, anti-terrorist and disaster relief operations" has opened in Tashkent. The International Air Transport Association (IATA)-supported conference was organised on the initiative of Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Uzbekistan's Avialeasing company and is backed by the Uzbeck Cabinet, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Uzbekistan, the Russian Transport Ministry and Embassies of the countries in the region.

International interest in rebuilding Afghanistan's economy and servicing the anti-terrorist operation brought together airline, airport and customs and excise representatives, Russian and Uzbeck Transport Ministry officials and representatives from international aid organisations.

Harry Dennison, IATA's Asia & Pacific regional representative, opened the conference and addressed it with the welcome speech.

Valery Tyan, head of Uzbekistan's state aviation control service, underlined in his speech that the Uzbekistan government welcomes the conference and is paying great attention to developing aviation in Uzbekistan.

Karl Ruppel, Russia's Deputy Transport Minister, underlined: "The international community is beginning to understand the need to co-ordinate efforts aimed at supporting peace-keeping and disaster relief programmes. Aviation plays a special role in these programmes and the co-ordinated work of all the logistics chain players is very important".

Abdul Razzak Bahshi representing the Government of Afghanistan provided support in his speech for the conference.

One of the main topics of the Conference is the needs and problems of air cargo logistics in Afghanistan, the use of roll-on/roll-off ramp equipped cargo aircraft in peacekeeping operations, services for national governments of the anti-terrorist coalition and customs registration of humanitarian cargoes. International governmental projects on rebuilding Afghanistan will be presented in the course of the forum. Tashkent was selected as the Conference venue because the main bulk of cargo for Afghanistan is transported via Central Asian countries.

The initiators of the Conference Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Avialeasing have extensive experience of operating to Afghanistan for the anti-terrorist coalition nations. Volga-Dnepr Airlines was the first civilian airline to carry out flights to Kabul and Bagram December last year and to date has carried out more than 200 flights to Afghanistan. Alexey Isaikin the General Director of Volga-Dnepr Airlines believes that the precious experience gained by the company in providing relief flights must be made widely available for other companies servicing the anti-terrorist campaign. The president of Avialeasing Igor Smirnov expressed confidence that the conference will help the participants to establish and strengthen connections and to solve co-operation problems.

Conference sponsors are Volga-Dnepr Airlines, Avialeasing, InfoMost consulting agency, Evergreen and the Willis insurance company.