VIENNA, 27 January 2010 - Policymakers and experts will discuss measures to promote good governance at border crossings, improve the security of land transportation and facilitate international road and rail transport in the OSCE region during the first part of the 18th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum, to be held in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday.

Keynote speakers and participants will include the Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the OSCE Kairat Abdrakhmanov; Kazakhstan's Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Azat Bekturov; OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, and Goran Svilanovic, the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities. Jack Short, Secretary General of the International Transport Forum, and Umberto De Pretto, Deputy Secretary General of the International Road Transport Union, will also take part.

Forum participants will discuss the challenges posed to the transport sector by the global economic downturn, how to promote transparency and enhance co-ordination between customs and other border agencies to improve governance at border crossings. Other topics include access to sea ports for landlocked countries and the security of transport connections in Central Asia and with Afghanistan.

The meeting in Vienna is the first part of the 18th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum process, and it follows a preparatory conference held in October 2009 in Astana. A second preparatory conference will be held on 15 and16 March in Minsk. The concluding part of the Forum will take place from 24 to 26 May in Prague.

Journalists are invited to cover the opening and the first session of the conference set to be held from 9:30 to 11:00 on Monday, 1 February, in the Hofburg Congress Centre's Neuer Saal and to a news conference at 11:00 in room 201. On Tuesday, 2 February, journalists are invited to the concluding debate and closing statements, to be held from 16:30 to 17:30. Other sessions of the conference are closed to the media.

For an agenda and other information, please see the conference website, http://www.osce.org/conferences/18theef_part1.html Journalists interested in interviewing speakers are encouraged to contact OSCE Economic and Environmental Adviser Roel Janssens, roel.janssens@osce.org

For admittance to the Hofburg Congress Centre, please bring your OSCE press badge or a valid press card to the security desk (main entrance from the Heldenplatz). Parking is available for the press during the event in the OSCE-reserved parking area on Heldenplatz. Temporary parking permits must be collected from the security desk.