PERMANENT SECRETARY ATTENDS ROAD MEETING

Permanent Secretary, Dr. Alwin Hales making a presentation at the Road Meeting.

Numerous leaders in the road building community gathered in Fort Lauderdale, USA between October 9 and 11 to participate in the IRF Latin America/Caribbean Roads Roundtable Forum. Ministers of transport, top-level executives from the private sector, and representatives from the World Bank joined an audience of over 100 in discussing the most pressing issues Latin America and Caribbean road builders are facing. The delegation from Jamaica was led by Permanent Secretary, Dr. Alwin Hales and included Director of Technical Services, Dr. Janine Dawkins.

Mark Rosenberg, the Director of the Global Road Safety Forum started the presentations with his talk titled, "Perfect Plague: An Epidemic of Road Deaths is Threatening Latin America and the Caribbean." He outlined the seriousness of the road safety issue in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Luis Irigoyen, the Sector Manager, Transport Finance, Private Sector and Infrastructure Latin American and Caribbean Region of the World Bank, then explained how the World Bank is working in the Region in hispresentation.

"Recent trends shaping the road sector agenda in LAC --a perspective from the World Bank." Joseph Toole, the Associate Administrator for Professional and Corporate Development of the Federal Highway Administration presented a plan to allow everyone to work together to make the Region's roads better in his presentation, "Building International Partnerships Through Transportation Technology Exchange."