Meeting XXXV of the Conference of General Directors (Authorized Representatives) of OSJD Railways, organised by the OSJD Committee, took place in the period from 14 till 16 September 2020 in a videoconference format with the participation of General Directors and Authorised Representatives from the following OSJD railways:

Azerbaijani Railways CJSC,

Afghanistan Railway Authority,

Byelorussian Railway,

MAV – Hungarian State Railways Co.,

“Vietnamese Railway” State Company,

“Georgian Railway” JSC,

“Kazakhstan Temir Zholy National Company” JSC,

China State Railway Group Со., Ltd.

Korean Railroad Corporation “KORAIL”,

Latvijas dzelzceļš SJSC (Latvian Railway),

Lietuvos geležinkeliai JSC (Lithuanian Railways),

“Railway of Moldova” State Enterprise,

“Ulan-Bator Railway” JSC,

“Polish State Railways” JSC,

“Russian Railways” OJSC,

National Railway Company “CFR” - SA

Railways of the Slovak Republic,

State Unitary Enterprise “Rohi Ohani Tojikiston” (Tajik Railway),

“Turkmendemiryollary” Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Communications of Turkmenistan,

“O’zbekiston temir yo’llari” JSC (Uzbek Railways),

Ukrainian Railway JSC (JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”),

Czech Railways JSC,

Estonian Railway JSC.

The meeting was also attended by the invited representatives from: the OSJD observers – German Railways JSC (DB JSC), VR Group (Finnish Railways); OSJD affiliated enterprises – Rail Cargo Hungaria Co. (Hungary), Beijing Jiaotong University (China), Southwest Jiaotong University (Chengdu, China); SIGIS LLC (Latvia), Gargždų geležinkelis CJSC (Lithuania), Mongolian Railway SJSC, Association of Transport High Schools (Russia), United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Railway Alliance JSC (Belarus-Kazakhstan-Russia), Russian Post JSC (Russia), Ruscon LLC (Russia), CTM LLC (Russia), TransContainer PJSC (Russia), Betamont LLC (Slovakia), PLASKE JSC (Ukraine); invited guests from the international organisations – CCTT, UIC; OSJD Committee.

Opening the plenary meeting of the Conference, chaired by the Secretary of the OSJD Committee, Mr. Attila Kiss noted that dew to the difficult situation in the world resulting from the coronavirus infection pandemic it became not possible to hold within the scheduled time frame the intramural meetings of the OSJD Governing Bodies this year - meeting XXXV of the Conference of General Directors in Moscow (Russian Federation) and session XLVIII of the OSJD Ministerial Conference in Budapest (Hungary). In this regard, the OSJD Members made a decision to hold meetings of the OSJD Governing Bodies in September this year in a videoconference format.

Since March this year, the OSJD working bodies and the OSJD executive body - the OSJD Committee have been working in difficult conditions, fulfilling the approved OSJD Work Plan for 2020. Most of the OSJD meetings are held in a videoconference mode, thus enabling the OSJD Working Bodies fulfill the scheduled objectives.

The agenda of the CGD meeting included the following items to be considered:

- the results of work for 2019 of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic, OSJD Commission on Passenger Traffic, OSJD Commission on Infrastructure and Rolling Stock, OSJD Permanent Working Group on Coding and Information Technologies, OSJD Permanent Working Group on Finance and Accounting;

- mutual accounting and mechanism for paying off debts between the railways;

- work progress of the OSJD Ad Hoc Working Group on vocational education/training in the field of railway transport;

- Report on OSJD Activities for 2019;

- OSJD Work Programme for 2021 and the years to follow;

- OSJD Committee Budget (final - for 2020, and preliminary - for 2021);

- candidate for the post of Chairman of the OSJD Committee;

- granting the status of an OSJD affiliated enterprise;

- provisional agenda, date and venue of CGD meeting XXXVI.

Basing on the consideration results and the discussion held, the CGD members have made corresponding decisions on the agenda items of meeting XXXV of the Conference and agreed on the recommendations for session XLVIII of the OSJD Ministerial Conference, which is scheduled to be held on 28-30 September 2020 in a videoconference format in the OSJD Committee.

Meeting XXXV has taken a decision to grant the status of an OSJD affiliated enterprise to the following companies:

- Northstar Sinogold Exhibition Chengdu Co., Ltd. (Chengdu, China), which main activities are concentrated to organise international conferences and exhibitions and other activities in the field of international business and cultural exchange, exhibition services, market research, marketing planning, trade consulting, etc.;

- METRANS LLC (Polonia) (Warsaw, Poland), specializing in the field of the transportation of goods.

When considering the new candidate for the post of the OSJD Committee Chairman, many delegations expressed their gratitude to Mr. Tadeusz Szozda for his outstanding work done, as well as words of approval and greetings to the new representative to this post from the Republic of Poland, Mr. Miroslaw Antonowicz.

The conference has accepted with gratitude the invitation of General Director – Chairman of the Management Board of the Russian Railways OJSC Mr. Oleg Belozyerov to hold CGD meeting XXXVI in the Russian Federation from 19 till 23 April 2021.