Dates: 20-24 May 2007
Location: Helsinki Fair Centre, Helsinki, Finland
Local hosts: HKL (Helsinki City Transport) / Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV)
Held under the theme “Public Transport: Moving People, Moving Cities”, the 57th UITP World Congress took place in Helsinki from 20–24 May 2007. The programme addressed social inclusion and accessibility, while the exhibition featured cleaner bus technologies including natural gas, biodiesel, electric and hybrid propulsion. The Congress also marked the launch of our Eurasia Division.
Participants
2,000 delegates from 470 cities in 80 countries
Countries
Exhibitors from 44 countries
Speakers
Top Management Executives
Held every two years in conjunction with the UITP World Congress, the exhibition floor had strong tradition of being animated by leading figures of the sector keen to find tangible solutions for their ambitious developments. Pro-active and educated buyers that belonged to the worldwide UITP community continued to recognise the value of live demonstration and face to face contact with a variety of suppliers. That year, Finland welcomed 277 exhibitors from 44 countries.
In his opening speech, Roberto Cavalieri, president of UITP underlined “by the year 2050, the world population is expected to be a third larger than it is today: 2.5 billion more people. If just 12% of them have vehicles it represents another 240 million car and trucks. That kind of growth and development raises some tough challenges, especially in light of our need to greatly reduce our carbon emissions”.
“Public transport should be at the forefront of the third industrial revolution. The one that will go from top-down organised power to distributed power age” Stressed Jeremy Rifkin, president of the foundation on economic trends and key-note speaker of the opening ceremony.
“Political consensus is an essential pre-requisite for the development of a successful public transport policy” underlined Jussi Pajunen Lord Mayor of Helsinki.
