The Annual Summit of the International Transport Forum will take place from 26 to 28 May 2021 in Leipzig, Germany.
The theme of the Summit will remain “Transport Innovation for Sustainable Development”, the topic of the postponed 2020 Summit, with a special focus on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted innovation in the sector.
Lessons from COVID-19
In a message published on the 2021 Summit website, ITF Secretary-General Young Tae Kim said, “The vital importance of the ability to innovate is surely one of the major lessons for transport from the Coronavirus crisis.”
“Innovation has been the lifeblood of the transport sector for centuries. Its innate innovative streak was evident in the imaginative, often ingenious ways transport reacted to the immediate health safety challenges as the Coronavirus spread around the globe.”
“All the innovative prowess transport can muster is equally essential to tackle the second challenge facing the sector: rebooting stalled transport activity and the economies that depend on it.”
Future of transport
The innovation theme is relevant and timely for the world’s premier transport policy event
“Rethinking the broader future of transport is a third challenge, and probably the biggest. How can we ‘build back better’? How can we make transport systems more resilient and at the same time more sustainable and more inclusive?”
“React, reboot, rethink – these three innovation challenges will inform our debate in the last week of next May. Now, more than ever, our collective imagination is needed to find unorthodox solutions and make them work.”
“That is why the innovation theme is as relevant and timely for the world’s premier transport policy event now as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Post-COVID impacts
“The ITF team is already working hard to enrich the programme with pertinent questions and relevant topics related to the post-COVID impacts, as well as notable speakers and innovative formats.”
The 2021 Summit will be held under the Presidency of Ireland, which has been extended for another year.
The current 1st Vice Presidency country Morocco will assume the ITF Presidency for 2022. The current 2nd Vice Presidency country, the United Kingdom, will assume the ITF Presidency for 2023.
