The two-day event will include a Ministerial round-table meeting and several working sessions. The ministers and stakeholders will discuss the development of land transport between Asia and Europe. Their aim is to identify current weaknesses and to promote harmonised cooperation between all states and institutions in this matter.

The following topics will guide the discussions:

• The rapidly increasing trade volumes between East Asia and Europe, and the capacity of transport systems to accommodate these flows
• The rapid re-emergence of Trans-Eurasian overland transport corridors as alternatives or supplements to the traditional ocean routes
• Divergence of and the need to harmonise strategic planning efforts in the area of Euro-Asia land corridor development
• The emerging role of the Central Asian countries as key transit nodes along the Euro-Asia land corridors
• Technical and legal harmonisation and the interoperability of intermodal transport systems in the Euro-Asia space
• Transport and logistics infrastructure investment and development as a prerequisite for overland supply chain development

The meeeting will bring together all the major stakeholders - ASEM Transport Ministers, representatives from the European Commission, European Union institutions and the ASEAN Secretariat, international institutions, business practitioners and global and regional transport and logistics companies, the non-governmental sector and academia.