The joint meeting, organised by the OSJD Committee from 1 till 4 December 2020 in a videoconferencing mode, was attended by the Plenipotentiaries of the Members of the OSJD Ministerial Conference and / or Plenipotentiaries of the Members of the Conference of General Directors (Authorized Representatives) of OSJD Railways representing the following countries: Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Bulgaria, Hungary, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Republic of Latvia, Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Mongolia, Republic of Poland, Russian Federation, Romania, Slovak Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Republic of Estonia, as well as representatives of: OSJD affiliated enterprises – Northstar Sinogold Exhibition Chengdu Co. Ltd. (China), Beijing Jiaotong University (China), Southwestern Jiaotong University (China), SIGIS LLC (Latvia), Gargzhdu Gelezhinkelis CJSC (Lithuania), METRANS (Polonia) LLC (Poland), United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Railway Alliance JSC (UTLC ERA), Digital Logistics LLC (Russian Federation), PLASKE JSC (Ukraine); international organisations - International Association “International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation” (CCTT), International Union of Railways (UIC) and the OSJD Committee.

The meeting was opened and chaired by Mr. Miroslaw Antonowicz who welcomed the meeting participants in his new status of the OSJD Committee Chairman.

The Plenipotentiary Representatives of the members of the OSJD Ministerial Conference considered the proposal of the Republic of Korea to organise session XLIX of the OSJD Ministerial Conference in the Republic of Korea from 14 till 17 September 2021. As a result of the discussion, the meeting has decided to hold session XLIX of the OSJD Ministerial Conference in the Republic of Korea from 15 till 18 June 2021 with the proviso that if it were impossible to hold session XLIX in an intramural mode, this event will take place from 15 till 18 June 2021 at the OSJD Committee using the videoconferencing mode, taking the framework provisional agenda approved by session XLVIII of the OSJD Ministerial Conference.

The meeting considered and discussed the materials developed by the OSJD working bodies, as well as by the OSJD Committee, which had been previously sent by the OSJD Committee to the executive authorities in charge of railway transport and the OSJD railways.

As a result of the discussion, the work plans of the OSJD working bodies for 2021 and the Schedule of the OSJD Meetings for 2021 have been agreed and approved, the latter being posted on the OSJD website and published in the ‘OSJD Bulletin’ journal.

The meeting decided that if it were impossible to hold meetings in an intramural format due to the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, all meetings of the OSJD working bodies in 2021 will be held in a video- conferencing mode unless these restrictions are lifted. This decision is considered to be in line with the requirement to agree on such a format for holding meetings stipulated by the regulatory documents of the OSJD working bodies.

At the proposal of the OSJD Commission on Transport Law, the meeting decided to establish an Ad Hoc Working Group of the OSJD Commission on Transport Law to consider the issue of railway and water traffic in the following composition: Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, People's Republic of China, Republic of Poland, Russian Federation, and Ukraine.

When considering the Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Infrastructure and Rolling Stock, the delegations participating in the meeting considered it expedient to speed up the process of granting the status of an OSJD affiliated enterprise to the Frauscher Sensortechnik GmbH (Austria) and supported its participation in the work of this Commission, provided it were granted the status of an OSJD affiliated enterprise.

The meeting considered it expedient to carry out work on item 1.4 of the PWG CI Work Plan “Updating OSJD leaflets O 920 (General principles for the allocation of codes and their management), O 920-1 (Standard numerical coding for railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and others companies involved in rail-transport chain), О 920-2 (Unified digital coding of railway service objects), О 920-13 (Unified coding and data structure required in international freight traffic) and the corresponding documents of the UIC IRS”. At the same time, the meeting addressed the Conference of General Directors with a request to make a strategic decision regarding further cooperation with the UIC for revising and converting the joint OSJD/UIC leaflets in the field of PWG CI area of activities into the international railway solutions (IRS).

The OSJD Committee was instructed to hold consultations with the UIC regarding the uniform European railway location database of codes (ENEE), which was transferred by the UIC to the European Union Agency for Rail- ways, in order to maintain a single database in the Eurasian space.