Transforming Transportation 2025

[Femi Oke] Welcome, everybody. Hello. Hello, it’s good to see you. Hello, online. Nice to see you around the world. This is the 22nd edition of Transforming Transportation. Whose first time is it? Wow. Keep your hands up. People who’ve been before will turn around and shake it and welcome you. You are in for a treat. Has anyone had their hand shaken, first-timers? No, please. Any more? First-timers, welcome. Unless you’ve got a hand-shaking phobia, and then I appreciate that. But okay, everybody’s welcome now. Fantastic. If you’re watching here, in DC, or you’re watching online over the years at Transforming Transportation, we’ve talked about the connection between development and transportation. Talked about how important it is to have sustainable transportation. Our theme for the 22nd edition of Transforming Transportation is implementation. It’s not the why, it’s the how. You think after you’ve got your policies, you’ve got your financing, you can’t mess up the how, right? These next two days will focus on implementation. My name is Femi Oke. I am your Conference Moderator for the next two days. If you’re looking for the program, you will find it on the online Cvent app, which will tell you what is coming up next, but if you don’t have your app, I will help you for the very first part with the opening remarks. Guangzhe Chen is the Vice President of Infrastructure for the World Bank, and Ani Dasgupta is President and Chief Executive Officer of the World Resources Institute. If you’ve seen these two work before, you know that they are a perfect double act. Welcome, gentlemen, again to your conference. Thank you.

[Guangzhe Chen] Thank you, Femi, and it’s great to have you with us again. Good morning and good afternoon for those connected online. It’s great to see many of you here, and many of you are also a familiar face, but I also noticed that when Femi asked a question, I roughly estimated maybe about 30%, 40% are first-timers for this conference. Well, welcome. I hope that you enjoy it and you may come back next year. It’s been 22 years in the working, you will see the history of these events. First, on behalf of my colleagues at the World Bank Group, and our partners in the World Resources Institute, the Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, I really want to welcome you all to the 22nd edition of Transforming Transportation. It’s really an honor to see many distinguished guests, ministers, practitioners, and also development practitioners, and also representatives from civil society organizations, think tanks, academics, and public and private sector leaders. Transforming Transportation has grown into a significant platform for advancing sustainable transport solutions and your presence today signifies this importance. The theme of this year’s conference is “Driving Change, Delivering Solutions.” Over the next two days, we will address the skills and resources needed to move from policy, to action, to implementation. Why is this topic and why now? The past edition of the Transforming Transportation has articulated a clear vision for modern transport, which is we want it to be clean, to be safe, sustainable, accessible, inclusive. Last year, we addressed the point about focus on financing. Imagine the world where opportunities just beyond which, not because of a lack of ambition or skills, but because the journey is also too far, or too costly, or too dangerous. That’s the reality for billions of people today, and that’s why we’re here. Transport is a missing link in economic development. It’s a creator and a connector to jobs, and which is a very important development solution that we all aspire to provide. It’s a bridge between farms and market, between business and customers, and between people and opportunity. With our advancing transport system and with our local skills to run them, investment in employments, agriculture, industry, we not reach their full potentials. I’m really proud to say that the World Bank Group is a committed partner to addressing the sustainable transport challenge worldwide. We are proud to be the largest financier among the DFI, among MDBs on sustainable transport in developing countries. We have a portfolio of about 160 transport projects worldwide for a value of about 35 billion dollars. The 35 billion dollars, of course, compared to needs is small, but we certainly think this is catalytic financing that we can leverage in other financiers, and of course, working with the partner governments. Since fiscal year 2017, we have committed over 20 billion dollars to future-fit resilient transport systems through over 200 projects. When completed, these projects will benefit millions of people with improved access to sustainable transport. This means better access to jobs and essential services, a more resilient market, and also a connected community. Specifically, just a couple of examples, this project means that people in the Pacific Islands can rebuild key roads and revise small business after natural disasters. In Egypt, the business can move goods by wheel instead of trucks because we funded a very large railway operation. This will save time and resources, and of course, just the climate change challenge. We’re rapidly urbanizing cities like Dakar, Quito, and São Paulo, where our support on BRT and metros, and it means that we can help moving communities from their home to the jobs and to other services. Still, the work ahead of us is vast. As we speak today, we still have over a billion people still who lack access to accessible roads, and over 2 billion people have a problem in terms of accessing public transportation. Road crashes still claim over 1.2 million people and cause 50 million serious injuries worldwide. And the majority of that, in fact, 93% of that is in developing countries. Investing in transport infrastructure alone is not enough. We must invest in people, the expertise, technical skills, and strong institutions. This can ensure the long-term success and the stability of the transport solutions. The World Bank Group recently has made several changes in the past two years to better deliver for our clients and get them close to the tools and knowledge that they need for the business ahead. One is for a stronger development outcome, we developed a new World Bank Group Scorecard, which provides measures on how we deliver our mission to end extreme poverty and boost prosperity in a livable planet. It will help us be more transparent, accountable, and to maintain our impact of the work. Transport features permanently in this corporate scorecard. And one of these metrics is called “Connecting Communities.” We also created what we call a knowledge compact for action. Also, in a different sector, we created a series of what we call “Academy,” including transport academy. This is really to provide a forum, a training capacity building opportunity for our client countries among the policymakers and also practitioners. To leverage the collective expertise of Transforming Transportation, attendees, we kick off the 2025 Transforming Transportation with a ministerial roundtable yesterday. We have a representation across the world with some 15 ministers, deputy ministers, gathering to talk about transport challenges and also the solution that they have experienced. I hope these conversations throughout the week will follow through on some of the ideas that we discussed yesterday, and I look forward to more offering of this discussion, and also on our new focus to become a better, more impactful, and more efficient World Bank Group. I’m confident that with your expertise, your dedication, and your ideas, we can continue to push the boundaries and develop sustainable transport solutions to benefit people in the planet. The roads ahead are challenging, but the destination is worth it, which is a world where transport brings opportunity within which of everyone. As we gather over the next two days, let’s remember the future we envision isn’t just possible, it is within our gaps. Let’s make it happen. Thank you for being here. I look forward to the continued conversation, and the networking, and the brainstorming, and the learning from each other over the next two days. Thank you. [Applause]

[Ani Dasgupta] Good morning, everyone. [Audience] Good morning. [Ani Dasgupta] Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to people joined online. Thank you all for joining. I love that I get to do this with Guang. Maybe this is the fourth year we’re doing this together. As Guang pointed out, this is our third decade doing this together. It’s wonderful to see. This is a great week for me to see a lot of old friends, and 40% you said, 40% new friends. Looking forward to meeting. A lot of you have traveled from far away, so I just want to welcome you to DC. It’s a very different DC that you were here last year. It is astonishing in some ways, but I think we have a challenging policy environment in quite a few countries in the world, not just this country. I don’t think we can ignore it, but I also think we can’t get totally distracted by it. As Guang pointed out, we have a lot of work to do. I just think over the more than two decades, it’s not only that we just have held this conference or gathering, I think we have built a community. I mean, that’s our singular goal. A community of practitioners, a community of people who believe that transport can be done differently, that we can move people to where they need to go easily, inexpensively, especially poor people who have difficulty getting to where they need to go, quickly. We can do that without destroying the planet. Most importantly, this is why we had this meeting in the Bank, that good transport can be an enormous path to prosperity. We believe this. This is not just because we are a group of people, just technical people. I think we believe this because we lead with our heart and we are going nowhere. We’re going to keep doing this till we get to the destination. I really mean that we are here because we care. You’re wondering what I’m saying. Let me take an example. Let’s take Kelly, for example. You will meet Kelly Larson. She’s in the first or second panel. Kelly is actually a donor. She works for Bloomberg Philanthropy. I’ve known her for 10 years now since I started working in WRI. Bloomberg Philanthropies has a very, very fancy office in New York, with a lot of aquariums and fishes, more fishes than people. Kelly could easily be sitting in that plush office because she’s a donor, She could give us money, gives money to the World Bank and sit back. But she doesn’t do that. She travels to every city she works with, every, every time I see her, she’s coming from somewhere, going somewhere. That’s the kind of people this community is about. We care about what we do. This community together has been producing incredible results across the world. Guang talked about road safety. I’ll give you an example for Bangalore, where we work in. Bangalore is the fifth, I think, most congested city in the world. This is the tech capital of India. 650 people die in Bangalore in road accidents, or used to die. That’s a very large number for one city. Last year, the Bangalore, after many years of work, of our team, many teams, the Bank’s team, the Bangalore adopted a viscerally different way of doing things. It adopted safety as a part and parcel of how they’re to do infrastructure, not just build roads for cars, but build roads for people. This “people-centricness” is common to the innovation that’s going around. They put more than 100 million dollars of their own money, and they instantly saw results. A similar people-centric city is in Brazil. Brazil, one of the leaders in public transport, not lost 90,000 jobs during COVID, 7.3 billion dollars. Only 10 public transport companies got public support before COVID. Now, more than 160 or something, get it? That brought change in public policy, specifically to change the economics of public transport. It actually resulted in actual revival of the public transport, ridership is back. Similar in Beijing. Similar, our community of people working has created an app that allows people to seemingly use transportation across modes, public modes of various kinds. Metros, busses, shared vehicles. That has allowed this, 30 million people on it right now, 30 million people. That has saved 400,000 tons of CO2. My favorite example is electric mobility. I said last year, in the electric mobility, the absolute innovation that’s going on in bus mobility, a bus electrification in India. But what is really fascinating to me, is what’s happening in two and three wheelers in India and in Africa. 90% of new registration in Africa is two and three wheelers. If we can electrify that, there’s a huge revolution coming, not in just transportation, but in jobs and clean air. That is what, actually, a team working with German support right now in Kenya, with the support of what we have learned in India, is to unleash that economy of electrified two wheelers and three wheelers, to make mobility for the poorest people better. These are the kinds of things that are happening in the world. As you very much know that these innovations that are happening, amazingly, people-centric innovation, that’s common across all the stories I told you, are not enough. We need to figure out how to do this and scale over and over again, and that’s only possible when we actually have policies in place and financing in place. That’s a core of what we’re going to hear for the next two days from all of you, but I think this year is an incredible opportunity to get it right. This year in Belém, the COP that is going to take place, it is about the next ambition of NDCs. Every five years, countries come together with a higher ambition for NDCs or better. This year is the year, 2025, Last time it was in Glasgow in 2021. In Dubai, we made great progress in getting specificity, or sectoral specificity, in energy, in efficiency, but not yet in transport. We know a better outcome doesn’t come from NDCs, but when they actually are connected with national policies, clear targets, clear sectoral policies. Transport so far still doesn’t have that. This is an opportunity. We made great progress in Dubai to get cities into it. We already see Brazil, for example. I hope people in Brazil are here. Actually, in the new NDC, there’s a very specificity of transport and of cities, and these things will come together. This is an opportunity for our community this year to actually bring together a really people-centric solution that can actually inspire national governments to put specific commitments in transport and financing in the policies so that we can replicate the stories that I just shared with you. This is why we are here, so that our community can not only do innovation in different places, but can add it up so we can make change globally. Thank you for being here. I’m really looking forward to learning you in the next two days. [Applause]

[Femi Oke] Our keynote speaker for the 22nd edition of Transforming Transportation is the President of the Republic of Guatemala, President Bernardo Arévalo. President Arevalo, are we connected? [Bernardo Arévalo] We are connected. Femi, how are you? Good morning to everybody in DC. [Femi Oke] Fantastic. Very well, thank you. And also, around the world watching you online. Mr. President, I know you have your keynote conversation. You will start, and then I will join in, in just a little while. Over to you. Thank you.

[Bernardo Arévalo] Thank you very much, Femi. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished leaders in the transportation and development sectors, colleagues from various nations and representatives of the World Bank Group. I’m honored to address you at this highly significant conference where we share a common goal, transforming our transportation systems into engines of development, sustainability, and resilience. Guatemala, as part of the global community, recognizes that transportation is not just about moving goods and people. It is a fundamental pillar for development, inclusion, and investment attraction. I thank the World Bank Group for fostering this space for the dialog and collaboration, because we know that a nation’s development is not built in isolation, but collectively with vision, commitment, and a determined effort. Guatemala is a beautiful, diverse country, both culturally and geographically. We have faced tremendous challenges, but our people and our government are committed to transformation. We have taken the first decisive steps towards a more efficient and sustainable transportation model. I would like you to know about how Guatemala has begun modernizing its infrastructure, improving connectivity, and implementing public policies that promote accessible and safe transportation for all citizens. First, you should know that Guatemala is currently in a period of a very positive political transformation. We are consolidating our democracy, rescuing our institutions, and strengthening the rule of law. We are decisively moving away from a country where corruption and arbitrariness hindered development to one where transparency and efficiency promotes growth and prosperity. Economic and social development is only possible within a framework of truly democratic institutions, citizen participation, and transparency in public management. Democracy is the foundation upon which we build a fairer country with greater opportunities for all. Within this framework, access to dignified, safe, and efficient passenger and freight transportation is an essential condition for ensuring equal rights and the well-being of our people. We are also modernizing our economy. In recent years, Guatemala has experienced sustained economic growth with a GDP rate of 3.7% in 2024 and an expected 4% in 2025. Inflation, as of January 2025, stood at 2.19%, reflecting stability in the general price level. Our country maintains solid macroeconomic fundamentals with a controlled fiscal deficit of 0.96% in 2024 and low public debt representing 22.13% of GDP in the same year. These indicators reflect an expanding economy, but they also remind us that we need investment in key sectors that drive inclusive and sustainable development. The transportation sector is one of them, essential for improving competitiveness, regional integration, and quality of life. Every investment in transportation translates into more jobs and more opportunities. An efficient transportation system reduces costs and strengthens key sectors such as agriculture, an industry that employs more than one-third of our population and contributes 10.2% to our GDP. A farmer’s products only hold value if they can efficiently reach markets, and businesses thrive when goods flow smoothly across our nation. To achieve our goals, it is crucial to adopt a multimodal transportation approach where roads, railways, transports, airports, and passenger and freight transport operate in an integrated manner. An efficient multimodal transport system reduces logistics costs, improves internal and regional connectivity, and optimizes resources utilization. Attracting investment in transportation is vital, but we are aware of our financial challenges. Therefore, international cooperation and foreign direct investment in infrastructure and transport are necessary to continue along our chosen path. Our country’s strategic location in Central America provides a key advantage for trade and logistics. However, to fully leverage this potential, we must overcome historical challenges in infrastructure and mobility. For too long, investment in transportation has been insufficient, representing less than 1% of GDP annually over the last decade, and inefficient, and mostly, often thwarted by corruption. This has resulted in inadequate maintenance and a deteriorated road network, a problem which is made worse by the effects of climate change. That is why we are working to strengthen our transportation networks, promoting inter-modality and the efficient use of various transportation to connect communities and boost our economy, while also strengthening governance, improving project execution, and leveraging private sector commitment to unlock the full potential of our transportation sector. To address these challenges, Guatemala is implementing six strategic policies and projects. First, we are strengthening our legal framework by adhering to international best practices in port, airport, and land transportation sectors. Our goal is to adopt standards which are transparent and that enhance road safety, protect lives, and encourage both public and private investment. Second, we are advancing strategic infrastructure projects that elevate national and regional connectivity. The construction and maintenance of roads and the reactivation of the railway system are priorities to ensure efficient and sustainable transportation. Recently, we passed the Priority Road Infrastructure Law, and a proposed reform to the law of public-private partnership for infrastructure development is currently before congress to improve the management of these alliances. Third, inclusion of rural communities. We understand that developing the big strategic infrastructure network is fundamental for economic development. But we need a similar effort for inclusion in the poorest regions of our country investing in development infrastructure. We are building and improving access roads in rural areas to ensure that all communities can reach essential services and economic opportunities, connecting parts of the country which have been abandoned forever into the main road and transportation system. Fourth, we recognize that transportation transformation is not an individual challenge, but a collective effort. We are committed to regional and international cooperation, and to engaging with foreign private investors. We are promoting strategic alliances with partner countries, multilateral organizations, the private sector, and civil society to share knowledge, attract investment, and strengthen sustainable mobility. A key initiative in this regard is the current Cooperation Project between the governments of the United States and Guatemala, aimed at strengthening our country’s ports and airports and reactivating the railroad system. This effort is being carried out in collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Fifth, road safety. We are expanding the coverage and services of our road protection and safety agency to prevent accidents and increase the safety of pedestrians and drivers on our roads. Finally, and very importantly, we are augmenting transparency in public management and active citizen participation in transportation development. We understand that transforming transportation requires joint efforts which is why we have established working groups with key stakeholders to analyze necessary regulatory reforms for passenger and freight transport. Additionally, we are working on a draft law that will strengthen our national port system and provide legal certainty in this sector, ensuring the presence of more and better operators. Let me be clear, this is not just about Guatemala or its people. Our country sits at a strategic crossroads in the Americas. By modernizing our communication infrastructure, we can unlock immense opportunities, strengthening regional integration will facilitate trade across North, Central, and South America. Enhancing our supply chains, already under extraordinary strain, will help stabilize consumer prices. By improving connectivity, we can position Guatemala as a prime destination for business looking to relocate operations from Asia, bringing them closer to their consumers and closer to home. In an era of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, Guatemala’s location, coupled with our enduring partnership with the United States, gives us a lasting competitive edge. But to fully capitalize on it, we must make strategic and significant investments in modernizing our railroads and ports. Ladies and gentlemen, the strength of a democracy should not only be measured by the quality of its institutions, but also by its people’s quality of life. The transformation of transportation is a global challenge that unites us all. Guatemala reaffirms its commitment to advancing toward a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient transportation system. We are convinced that only through cooperation and forward-looking vision, we can achieve our objectives. I appreciate this space for dialog and reiterate Guatemala’s commitment to build the transportation system of the future, together. Thank you very much. [Applause]

[Femi Oke] Mr. President, you made a very good case, but I would like you to drill down and give us a story that really shows that connection of the importance of transport in Guatemala, and tell us one example that really solidifies what you’ve been saying in a story. Please, go ahead.

[Bernardo Arévalo] This is something I learned from my wife. She is an MD and a specialist in public health care project management. When we were getting to know each other, she was sharing with me the role that she was doing at the time. She was telling me how important it was to provide roads in rural areas that provide access to people who are now disconnected, you couldn’t reach by car their villages because of the impact in health. I remember she shared with me how women that were in the process of labor and suddenly had some sort of problems that required urgent medical care in these villages needed to be brought to the next public or private health care provider in a town across ravines, and hills, and everything, sitting in a chair that was tied to the forehead of a man in the community, a process that took hours and that often meant that lives were lost because of the time spent in the transportation. Something that could have been prevented if there was a very simple road connecting people and allowing people to have access to health. That for me is a very clear example of how transportation and roads can change the lives of people.

[Femi Oke] As I was doing my research on you, Mr. President, I heard this phrase often, “He loves transportation, he’s really into transport.” It’s quite an unusual thing to say about a President or a Head of State of a country. In the UK, when I grew up, often people who are enthusiastic for transport are teased for being a little bit nerdy. But look at us now. Look where we got to. I just wondered if I could do a little bit of psychoanalysis on you… [Audience laughing] [Femi Oke] And ask you… [Bernardo Arévalo] You don’t want to go in there. [Audience laughing] [Femi Oke] Why do you love transport so much?

[Bernardo Arévalo] Well, I didn’t play with trains when I was a kid. I can tell you that. But when I was a young boy and I was living in Mexico City with my family, it was the time when the metro in Mexico City was being built, the first metro. I remember it as an era of public excitement all over and all around because people were seeing the metro as a sign of modernity, of prosperity, of progress. There was hype about it. Then as I had the opportunity to travel around the world, I was always able to see and establish this correlation between the well-being of people, the level of progress that you have in a city, in a region, or in a country, and the quality of the transportation infrastructure. Good airports, railways, metro systems, public transportation. For me, it became very clear that the fact that as a country we have failed to invest in infrastructure development for so many decades is one explanation of why we have such worrying levels of poverty and exclusion of people from the economic cycle. I thought, and all of us here, in my government, and with all partners in the private sector and civil society, that this is the time to begin a journey that we know that will take decades, but if we don’t start it now, we will never get there.

[Femi Oke] As a keynote speaker, it is your duty to inspire us for the next two days. In a sentence, how would you suggest that we drive change and deliver solutions?

[Bernardo Arévalo] Oh, well, you see, this is very easy because here you have a government that is very clear of the challenges, very clear of the need, and very determined to begin working on those. You, transport specialists around the world, are our hope to make this vision and dreams come true for the benefit of our people. So, we count on you. I hope that you have a very productive meeting in the next two days. [Applause] [Femi Oke] Thank you. Thank you. President Bernardo Arévalo, thank you for being our keynote speaker for the very beginning of this 22nd edition of Transforming Transportation. Have a great day. [Bernardo Arévalo] Thank you, Femi, and good luck to everybody. Bye-bye.

[Femi Oke] How do you follow the President of Guatemala? Who wants that job? Frannie Léautier. We’re with you. Thank you for your service. Partner, CEO, SouthBridge Investment, Rwanda. Frannie, I know you can handle this. You are going to start off our first plenary. Frannie, please come up. Thank you. Welcome. [Applause]

[Frannie Léautier] Thank you, Femi, for setting me up. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It’s wonderful to be here in Washington to see friends, Ani, Guang, others, Nicola, Ben, and others in the audience. I’ve been working in transportation, I would say all my life, actually, having studied it and worked on sites and so on. It’s very exciting to be here today to offer this keynote for a theme that I think is really important, because what we are to talk about in this session is capacity, governance, and innovation for implementation. So, I wanted to just perhaps come back to something that the President of Guatemala said. What has struck me about transformation is that transport is actually the sector that delivers transformation. As we plan for a livable future, how we design and implement transportation systems will shape the world we live in as it has done historically. Transforming transport is not just about moving people and goods from point A to point B, but it’s about enhancing our quality of life. It’s about connecting people and places, and ensuring accessibility for all. But today, especially as we look at the systems we have with us, even our devices, transport is also about moving data and ideas. It has always done that, but now it’s doing that in a much faster way. We stand at a pivotal moment where capacity, governance, and innovation are driving transformation. And that transformation could refine mobility for future generations. I couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop than the one you see here. This is Dakar. That’s the BRT in Dakar. You see a young woman on a bicycle. Within that photo, you see everything from the charging stations you need, the electric transport, the people-powered transport, and all the systems that interconnect. Let me talk then, about the first item that we need in place, which is capacity as the backbone of transportation. While we often think of capacity in terms of physical infrastructure, roads, and railways, airports, when you read any transport journal, that’s what they mean by capacity. But capacity is also about creating systems that work efficiently as demand grows and changes. True capacity is about developing a bold, future-focused vision for transport. What will successful transport be in the next 10, 20, 50 years? Will it be electric? Will it be multimodal? Will it be integrated with data or even extend into space? Because now we have to think of Earth connecting to space. Setting a vision provides direction for policy, for investment, and collaboration, all driving towards a common goal. But setting the vision is just the beginning. Moving from vision to reality requires collaboration. Transport is a complex system. It touches every part of society, and its success hinges on collaboration between government, between businesses, between communities, and indeed, with the investment community. Take Copenhagen as an example. It’s a city that transformed itself into one of the world’s most bike friendly places through many years of collaboration. How did they do it? By aligning incentives, investments, and regulations, they were able to create a city which has become a model for sustainability, and in particularly, sustainable mobility. So, the lesson is very clear. Capacity and skills for collaboration are essential for successful transformation. We also talk about Denmark saying, how can all of us become Denmark? Because they have this unique governance framework. It turns out it delivers a lot in transportation as well. I’ll share with you an Akan proverb from the Akan language, “Ti Koro Nko Agyina,” which means one head or person does not hold council, which means, especially in transport, we have to work together. So, governance is absolutely key, and collaborative governance. Second, I’ll turn to skills. Successful transport transformation requires more than construction skills. I grew up studying engineering and worked on construction sites, but as I grew into the sector, I learned that not only do you have to have the skills to run a construction site, but you need to integrate infrastructure with incentives and regulations. Singapore has an approach to managing congestion through dynamic road pricing, and it has a world-class metro system illustrating the skills you need to optimize existing infrastructure with intelligent technology, reducing the need to expand capacity, because Singapore doesn’t have a lot of land, and they don’t need to add new lanes. They manage with what they have. So, Singapore’s government developed its the capacity to implement a comprehensive strategy and put in place an exceptional team of highly efficient and skilled people to develop that affordable transport system. The skilled people had skills in the state-of-the-art infrastructure design. That’s how they got the metro system. They also had the ability to design financial incentives. They could bring in affordable fares. They brought in discounts for seniors and students, but they also used a skilled workforce to implement regulations targeting car ownership through efficient taxes and road pricing. Paris, with its 15-minute city, I was very proud to be among the jurors who are reviewing Paris for the WRI, Ross Center for [Sustainable] Cities. Its 15-minute city has done a similar transformation. These are models that have worked. Capacity and skills for comprehensive, integrated approaches that link policy, infrastructure, and engagement of communities and businesses. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where I come from, had to use very similar talents to deal not only with congestion, but also safety and expansion of the transport system, while at the same time managing debt sustainability, which many countries are grappling with. The fact that it could do this while bringing in BRT and the very first electric train connecting Dar es Salaam to Dodoma is a tribute to expanded internal capacity. What kind of skills do we need for successful transport projects? First, setting clear goals and tracking progress. Second, project management for time, budget, procurement and resources. Third, long-term financial planning to secure investments. Fourth, engaging communities to make sure transport works for everyone. And fifth, using data to make decisions. Gone is a time where you can decide in the absence of data. I think now that is a key skill. So, these skills ensure that projects are not only completed on time, but also contribute to sustainable mobility. What are the other success stories that have gone from vision to reality? Cities like Bogotá in Colombia, with its TransMilenio bus system, they show how transport innovation can reduce congestion and pollution while improving the quality of life. In Dakar, Senegal, where you see the BRT system, it integrates electricity and urban planning to create multimodal spaces for work, leisure, and transport. These examples demonstrate how vision, collaboration in the right skills, can turn ambitious ideas into successful systems. But they also demonstrate the need for interdisciplinary skills and capabilities for successful transformation. The implementation of the Dakar BRT demonstrates the importance of not only technical and formal skills, but also of internships, of learning on the job and continuous education. This is akin to what Germany’s Industry 4.0 Initiative, which has equipped workers with the skills needed for the green revolution in transport and other sectors. By offering apprenticeships, technical certifications, and specialized training, they have built a workforce that is ready for the challenges of modern transport. When I visited Shanghai with President Wolfensohn, I was impressed by how the city government agencies worked seamlessly to leverage existing local capacity. Through the National Accounting Institute there, they simplified their procurement rules and other implementation procedures. In fact, most local governments in China have the capacity to contract directly with local universities and institutes. Many countries could learn from this experience. A World Bank project we financed in rural China, even proudly displayed “Finance by the World Bank” on the house of one of the residents. When I asked what was the most helpful contribution of the World Bank beyond finance, they said, support to build skills to transform their procurement system. So, procurement made a big difference in China. Building local skills and creating jobs is also key because transport transformation presents an opportunity to create good green jobs, from engineers developing electric vehicles to urban planners designing walkable cities, to the demand for skilled workers, which is growing in every sector. Countries like the UK have seen job booms in manufacturing and battery technology through the push for electric vehicles. We must invest in education and training programs to equip the workforce of tomorrow to ensure successful transformation. Public-private partnerships can help us develop the right curricula that meet the needs of the transport sector. The Nelson Mandela Institutes of Science and Technology in Abuja, Nigeria, Arusha, Tanzania, and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, also are developing youth with requisite skills for this future. They work in partnership with the private sector and government to provide research questions and internships that subject academic knowledge to the reality of today’s challenges. These institutes are modeled after MIT and are known for the best data scientists and AI experts in Africa, in addition to the traditional engineering, management, and finance skills. But all of this wouldn’t work if we don’t have good governance, which is key to transport transformation. It’s not just about creating policies, it’s about fostering collaboration, ensuring accountability, and bringing together the right players. Copenhagen’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2025 shows how local governments, businesses, and citizens can collaborate to create a sustainable transport ecosystem. Governance has to be forward-thinking, and this is a hard one, because most of our political systems look at short-term fixes, but we need long-term solutions to ensure systems can adapt to evolving technologies. The role of the transport expert is to manage in between these changing political cycles and put in place those long-term strategies for evolving technologies. The opening of the School of Governance in Kigali, Rwanda, is an example of how countries can prepare for a transformative future by putting in place the types of skills-building program that will get us there. This is modeled after what Singapore did. Finally, let me turn to innovation. Innovation is the spark that turns vision into reality. From electric vehicles to hyper-loop technology, innovation has the potential to transform transport. But innovation must be implemented thoughtfully. Spiro, a company in Togo and operating elsewhere in Africa, has revolutionized transport with innovations like battery swapping and distributed charging stations. Similarly, Finland is leading the way by integrating various transport services into one seamless system through a single app, but innovation alone isn’t enough. Successful implementation is key. Mobility as a service, which integrates transport options into a unified system, is one example of how technology can revolutionize how we move. BasiGo in Kenya is a good example of a company that does this, hiring data scientists, finance experts, and engineers. These examples show the range of skills needed at the company level for a successful rollout. So, let me bring it all together now and conclude on a future of mobility. To transform transport, we must work at the intersection of capacity, governance, and innovation. We need optimized infrastructure, governance that encourages collaboration, and innovative solutions that adapt to society’s changing needs. By setting clear visions, fostering collaboration and implementing holistic strategies, we can build transportation systems that are future-proofed. The future of transport is in our hands. By working together, governments, businesses, investors, and communities, we can create systems that not only move people, but also move cities, regions, and nations towards a bigger and brighter, more sustainable future. I’ll close with a Swahili quote, “Fanikio Huzaa Fanikio,” which means “success breeds success.” I believe we can get there. Thank you very much. [Applause]

[Femi Oke] Thank you to Frannie for setting up plenary one, “Capacity, Governance, Innovation for Implementation.” I’m going to invite the panelists to come onto stage and find their seating and their name tags. Please, come on and can we just take a seat there. I will tell you that this plenary will be partially conducted in French. If you need help with that, there are interpretation devices at the back of the room. The only thing I would ask is do not take it to coffee with you, bring them back. They are very, very expensive. If you don’t bring them back, I don’t get paid. All right, very good. Are we finding our seats? Renée, I feel like that might be my seat. Thank you. We’re capacity building together. Fantastic. All right. Good morning, panel. It’s so good to see you. I’m going to greet you one by one. There’s a microphone on the table. Do use it when I speak to you because sometimes it’s exciting to talk and we forget we have an audience and we have to talk to them as well. I’m going to let you know who we have on stage. If you want to take part in this conversation, a couple of ways, if you’re doing it online, there’s a live chat, and we will follow that, bring that conversation into the room. Also, you can use the hashtag #TTDC25. #TTDC25. Normally, we trend in DC with that hashtag no pressure. All right. Panelists, it’s so good to see to you, welcome. I’m going to greet you one by one. Minister José Tonato is the Minister of Living, Environment and Sustainable Development in Benin City. Welcome, it is good to see you. Sitting next to the Minister, we have Ydanis Rodriguez, Commissioner of Transport for New York City, USA. Welcome, good to have you. Would you actually say something back to me on your microphone? Then, we can do two things at the same time, which is… Perfect. Good to have you. Test the microphone and greet you. Juan Carlos Muñoz, Minister of Transport and Telecommunications in Chile. Thank you for being part of the team and plenary one. Good to have you. Welcome. Thank you. Trust me, the microphones are working, so you can say hello on the microphones. That would be wonderful. If you tap, the gentleman in the sound booth gets quite upset. Then, we have Renée Amilcar. Renée, it’s so lovely to see you. Renée is the UITP President and General Manager of OC Transpo in Canada. Good to have you. And finally, we have—

[Renée Amilcar] Good morning. [Femi Oke] Good morning. Finally, we have Sarath BS Abayakoon, Governor of the Central Province of Sri Lanka. Welcome. [Sarath BS Abayakoon] Thank you.

[Femi Oke] So, this is just to get a sense, plenary, of what you’re thinking right now. If the World Bank gives you a blank check, you can spend any amount of money for implementation, what would you spend it on? Sarath, what would you spend it on?

[Sarath BS Abayakoon] I would spend it on capacity development in my country. We really need that because of the transport issues that we have, and we have identified areas where we need the development. [Femi Oke] Okay, capacity development. So, let’s put on that. Renée, what would you spend it on? Any amount of money? [Renée Amilcar] I would inject bold to politicians. [Femi Oke] Minister Muñoz. [Juan Carlos Muñoz] I would probably spend a lot on making our rural roads safer. That’s where most of our people die, in rural roads, not in urban roads, and also in enhanced public transport in our cities. [Femi Oke] Ydanis. [Ydanis Rodriguez] I will invest around Vision Zero, which is a 3E. The first “E” is about “Engineer” so that we can have enough resources to reimagine the use of public space to invest in our street to make it safer. The second E is the E of “Educational.” Educating all, upper class, middle class, working class, the academic institution, the private institution, for everyone to understand the role that they can play to make our streets safer and to make educating the drivers, for them to understand that when they get behind the wheel, they are responsible to protect the most vulnerable, the pedestrians and cyclists. The third “E” is to have enough resources for enforcement, working with the police department so that those individuals, they are responsible to contribute to the day of 1.2 million people who die every year in our roads, those drivers should be accountable. Making the street safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and even for drivers.

[Femi Oke] Minister Tonato, what would you spend any amount of money on immediately? You get the check in your account tomorrow. What would you spend it on?

[José Tonato] Thank you. Given all of the efforts that have all already been made in the area of infrastructure, I would invest in sustainable and smart transportation. That would take into account Benin’s context. In Benin, we have a lot of taxi motorcycles. I want to move towards a mass transport system that is smart, resilient to climate change and low carbon. You need governance platforms to help optimize those investments. Thank you.

[Femi Oke] I like that nobody hesitated. I didn’t rehearse this. I didn’t ask this question beforehand, and you all had instant answers. So, it’s not a vision that is a problem. It’s like, “Where’s the money? Then we can do it.” Renée, I love where you sit because you’ve got a good sense of what is happening in transportation around the world and where perhaps the gaps are between vision and let’s make this happen. What would you share with us about that viewpoint that you have globally?

[Renée Amilcar] Thank you very much, and that’s why I said we need to be bold because the money, it’s very important. I’m with you, but I think we need a vision to have a sustainable solution for the transportation. We need to be able to plan in advance. We need as well to make sure that when we take decisions, it’s for the future. It’s not only to have some votes during an election. So, this is unfortunately what I see most of the time. A good example is when the pandemic hit, we know that we lost a lot of ridership. Unfortunately, the finance is behind because we don’t trust enough in public transit. We should be able to say regardless, we need to invest on public transport. I think if we can have this blood inside us to say public transport should be at the top of our agenda, we’ll find the money, we’ll work together to find the money, and we’ll make it. So, we need absolutely to believe this is a vision, this is planning in advance, and this is the way that we can save the planet.

[Femi Oke] Minister Muñoz, you smiled when Renée said, “Well find the money.” I was like, “Can I tap into that smile?”

[Juan Carlos Muñoz] I would like to react also to what Renée was saying. She is very clear that the pandemic was really terrible for sustainable transport. People were reluctant of using our public transport, and most cities ended up, the pandemic, with less ridership that we started. But now we have a new challenge which should lead us towards increasing our ridership, the strength of public transport, which is the decarbonization goals. Here, we have an opportunity to really align the dots and take this very important crisis towards making our cities more sustainable. It’s very nice that the decarbonization goals are very aligned with making public transport more appealing to biking more, to walking more, to what we’ve been discussing in this auditorium for 20 years. This is what the decarbonization goals are asking us to do. And much better, what we can tell from Santiago is that if you bet into making our public transport electric, for instance, it also makes public transport more and more attractive as well. People not only love the bus because it’s electric, but because they can charge their phone. They love the air conditioning. They love that this doesn’t make vibrations. They love that it’s not very noisy. There are a lot of elements here that make it very interesting to move ahead very aggressively towards reaching our decarbonization goals through making public transport better.

[Femi Oke] Minister Muñoz, Ydanis, talked about biking more, walking more. That totally resonates for you for New York, correct? That’s something Ydanis, for you in New York, that you’re thinking about, how do you make the city more bikeable, more walkable, and implementing that?

[Ydanis Rodriguez] I think that the question today is not in New York City, but it’s a global conversation about how do we move people? And no doubt, vehicles will continue being a motor transportation. By New York City, we have 4 million people who take the trains every day, and we have a million people who take the every day. I was born and raised in 1965. My father had a bike, but the car became a symbol of progress, and people thought that biking was for poor people. When I went to Shanghai to food and dash in my last semester, in 1962, they had a bike lane, and I was told, “Change your dollars, get 350 yuan, go and buy a bike.” So, I think that what people had to realize… We have different weathers in different parts of the world. In a city that is so hot, it’s difficult to think about only relying on biking. But trains, busses, walking, biking, and vehicle don’t contradict each other. It’s about giving options. In 2023 in New York City, we had 200 million bike trips. When you look… Those of you, I know that most of you have been in New York City. Think about Times Square. Times Square was a storage for cars in the 1980s. Well, last year, Shakira held a concert of 40,000 people, and it’s more space to walk. I feel that even from the World Bank and any major global institution in the private sector, if you think about investing in public transportation, it’s not just giving money. It’s that we had to realize that Katrina, Sandy, Maria, Ida, they were natural disasters that we lived. How can we leave the society better for the present and future generation? It has to come with global leaders to think about how can we reimagine the use of public space. Led by Jean Todt and the Minister of Transportation, Mohammed VI in Morocco. We were there, many of us. It was a conversation about how can we improve safety. Crashes are an epidemic. We eradicated COVID, but 1.1 million people are dying every day in the world. Leaders from government, private, academic, advocates, we have to come together to say the world of those 1.1 million people, beautiful loved one, family, friends, that they are dying every day because of reckless drivers.

[Femi Oke] You’ve anticipated our plenary that is happening after the break, Ydanis, where we’re talking about road safety. So, you’ve connected the dots for us. I’m going to push you a little bit more because I didn’t ask you necessarily about why this was important. This conversation is how. How do we do this? We’ve got beyond the... Everybody here gets the why. But the how. And it’s not just about New York City, it’s about what we do as cities. What can you... I suppose what I’m asking for is a strategy. Go ahead.

[Ydanis Rodriguez] It’s bringing sectors together. It’s bringing different groups together. Is that... I’ve been living in New York City since 1983, but I’m in the face of equity because at 55 Water Street, from where I lead this department of 6,000 men and women, the largest department that any city has in the United States, I used to work there doing sandwiches in 1983. What I’m doing as a commission of the OT, the job that I have after being a council member in New York City is bringing sectors together. It’s going to the private sector. It’s going to the academic institution. It’s working with Feniosky Peña-Mora, who is the first Latino who is the President, or the Latino Civil Engineer Association, the Civil Engineer Association in New York City is DCAS. I have a great friend that there used to be in DCAS. For me, it’s about changing the culture. For me, it’s about when I promote biking in New York City, biking, when it comes to working class, it’s more delivery workers. There’s a fight because people see a lot of essential workers who are delivering the food, are the ones who are causing problems. What they don’t think is that 84% of people in New York City, they place the order once a week through Amazon, UPS, and FedEx, and 24% place the order four times a week. What is that I’m doing with the support of the Mayor of New York City? Bringing sectors together, persuading the private sector, that in the government, that we have to put the money in the right place and investing in our transportation, our busses, our trains, protecting cyclists and pedestrians should be an agenda not only with the transportation authority, Family for Safe Streets, the advocates, but it should be led by the academic and the private sector, too.

[Renée Amilcar] Ydanis, I’m with you, if I may. How we do that? We need a vision, as I said. We need to plan the future. We need funding for sure, but we need to work together. And this is why the UITP, the International Union of Public Transit, we work with a lot of people. We work with the private and the public sectors, with authorities, operators, all the stakeholders are together because we want to be able to work together to have the same vision. And even if, let’s say, I know that I said first that the politicians need to be bold because when it’s not the right, let’s say, elected official war here, we should continue to... If we have a good planning, if we have a good vision, we should continue to just move on. Maybe I can give a good example in Ottawa, where I work. At the beginning, we just finished one of the very, very big transformations of the city. We are in the phase two. So, we wanted to bring LRT in Ottawa because federal workers used to come and it was jam-packed daily. The politicians over there, the mayor, decided at the time that it could be great to have LRTs. Unfortunately, we know what happened in 2020 with the COVID. Those workers are still at home now, but with the new mayor, we will continue to build the LRT. For sure, we don’t need this mass transportation anymore because people are working from home. But the thing is, because the vision was clear, we will continue to build up so people will come on the future and the system will be ready. So, this is where you have a good vision and you can build for the future, even if today, that costs a lot, for sure. We are looking for money to be able to sustain that. At least now, we know that for the future will be very bright.

[Femi Oke] Minister Tonato, you had a very bold vision that you shared with us immediately. If I had endless amounts of money, this is what I would do. It focused on smart cities, on low carbon transport. So, I’m really intrigued. We are really intrigued as to how do you implement that? It sounded so good. How’s it going?

[José Tonato] Thank you very much. First and foremost, an observation is made. We start from an infrastructure in order to move you need roads, you need paths, and you need transportation assets. This year, we have made some significant efforts from the infrastructural standpoint, urban infrastructure, in order to link zones between themselves, between each other, in order to be able to operate in the city where you have trading, where you have shops, where you have housing. You have to be able to move. How do you organize transportation in order for each person to avail themselves of something that is not too complicated? When no one regulates, when there’s no regulation, when everything is chaotic, well, budget doesn’t work. What we are scaffolding now with the support of the World Bank, the Urban Mobility Project, Sustainable Mobility, Grand Nokoué is fundamentally based on green. An entire fleet of vehicles, multimodal vehicles, integrated public multimodal vehicles, an entire fleet that will, of course, involve busses in part, of waterway transportation, and of course, other modalities, because in Cotonou, there are approximately 600,000 moto-taxis. Setting up a specific special governance structure in order to manage that mobility is crucial. Also, to be able to develop funding, which involves, of course, a good operation of the state budget, but also the integration of a private sector that has to be mobilized fully and play its role. Also, bring the parties and actors, stakeholders together around the table so that there may be a discussion with the private sector, the public sector, the beneficiaries, the associations, the CSOs, the populations, in order to see that there would be a rather resilient apparatus, and I would even add an inclusive apparatus. First of all, a mechanism that will be based on a first phase, a pilot phase, where we will test the system we want to create. Of course, if this seems conclusive, we will go to scale. The context of Benin, Grand Nokoué is approximately 2 million people. That’s the population. Five to the first one commune, and the four other communes, each one of them comes to the center, Cotonou, and goes back home in the evening. That means horrendous traffic, horrible traffic. And so, not only infrastructures, of course, are crucial, but by setting up these infrastructures, it is as though you were attracting people or attracting the purchase of cars, of automobiles, and inciting people to buy cars. If it is not regulated, if it is not structured, if there are no alternate proposals for transportation because people who have transportation, first and foremost, have to be comfortable, now you’re going to leave your individual car somewhere in a car park that is going to be safe, that is fine. But the security standpoint, the safety standpoint is very important. In fact, it’s much safer than my own personal car. All those ingredients together in a special sort of alchemy where people have interactions, and there are interactions. This is what allows you to optimize the public transportation system. And then, this situation really is a clear transition towards electrical transportation, waterway transportation, but busses as well. And this is what we want to do within the framework of the Grand Nokoué Sustainable Urban Mobility Project. Thank you.

[Femi Oke] Thank you. Merci, Monsieur. Minister. Sarath, I’m thinking about your province in Sri Lanka and building local capacity, which is in the beautiful vocabulary that we like to use when we work in policy-making, but tell us an actual story that shows either the gap in implementation between what you would like to happen and what is happening or successful capacity building. What would that story be? What would that example be that takes us to your province.

[Sarath BS Abayakoon] Yeah, thank you. [Femi Oke] And the microphone is just there. Thank you. [Sarath BS Abayakoon] If I am to start with a small introduction of the country. Country is a small island below the southern tip of India, the area of 25,000 square miles and the population of 22 million. So, the population density is about 900 persons per square mile in general. In the major cities, it has gone up to about 34,000 sometimes in Colombo. Where I come from in Kandy, it’s about 10,000. That is the urban mobility, people have moved to the cities. Where I come from, and also the administrative structure, there are nine provinces. I’m heading one of the provinces, Central Province. Then, there are 25 districts, and then the central government. One of the most difficult issues is that these entities are not working together. Some of the entities are not working together. For example, we have to train transport experts in urban planning and then train land use experts in transport area. That’s one of the examples. So, these areas do not work together and people separate. That is a hindrance in our development of transport. [Femi Oke] It sounds like an easy fix. Tell me why I’m being too simplistic. You just move them around, right? [Sarath BS Abayakoon] Well, there are central government and provincial governments. There are some issues, regulations. So that is where the problems are. [Femi Oke] Yes, of course, yes. [Sarath BS Abayakoon] And then, when it comes to my own area in Central Province, we have this KMTT, Kandy Multimodal Transport Terminal project, which is being done now. It’s expected to be completed in two years’ time. However, that’s World Bank supported. That project is going on, but then there are peripheral issues that need to be addressed. For the project to successful in the country, in the city, there are a lot of peripheral issues to be addressed. Again, we need a lot of expertise and also physical things that we have to do, some satellite stations have to be developed, and then the bus rerouting has to be done. As expected, how do you get people from private transport to the busses? So, we need to improve the bus services. And so, all those things are— [Femi Oke] Is that a question that is being answered? Because that would be the implementation, wouldn’t it? [Sarath BS Abayakoon] Yeah, that’s right. [Femi Oke] What’s the answer? [Sarath BS Abayakoon] We are trying to get that. We are trying to get, again, some support to develop the satellite stations and others. And internally, we have started training people. And also, Kandy is a major tourist attraction. So, improving tourism in Kandy and taking them from one place to another, the routes are being developed now. We are doing it at our level. [Femi Oke] Minister Muñoz has a question for you. [Juan Carlos Muñoz] No, I wanted to, in some way, complement what Sarath was saying. I think that when we’re trying to make an alternative to private car attractive, it’s very easy to go and take our mind towards one particular transport mode. I think that’s the very wrong approach. We need to understand that what people need is mobility as a whole, to reach from home to work. And that, for many, won’t be through a bike, won’t be through metro, won’t be through bus, won’t be through walking but towards the combination of them. So, I think a very important goal in ourselves or to ourselves is to divide our groups into people that want one mode or another. When we’re dealing with a very important challenge here, it’s to make cars less attractive. We need to understand that that will be achieved only if we look at the system as a whole, not only in terms of transport modes, but also as a metropolis. We need to understand that we won’t be able to solve the problem if we only focus on one part of the city either. When we do this, we’ve been discussing this, and probably what I’m saying has been said in the same seat for probably 5, 10, 15 years in this specific conference that I have had the pleasure to attend. A very interesting new kid in the room is the electric bus. I really think that could be a game changer in some sense because it provides a sense of modernization regarding the public transport system, a sense that the user feels like they are really investing in me, which in combination with bikes, in combination with great walking and with great metros, could provide a tip towards making public transport more attractive. In our case, in Santiago, Santiago de Chile is not the richest city in the world. There are cities that are probably three, four times richer than us. It’s not the one with more inhabitants. There are probably cities with three, four times more inhabitants than Santiago. Still, we have the largest electric bus fleet in the world. We’re very proud, and the results have been outstanding. People love our busses. People have the sense that the city is modernizing and that the public transport becomes, in some sense, with our metro, which is great, a positive attribute of the city. I think, and it’s very interesting, it has shown very resilient, too. A week ago, we had a major blackout of the whole country, electric blackout. Still, our busses were able to keep on moving, and we were able even to charge them with diesel generators during the night. The electric buses not only are proving to being a great mobility solution, not as expensive as maybe you can think of, because they are cheaper to operate, cheaper to maintain than a diesel one. Also, they have been proved to be very resilient in case of a blackout like we saw last week in Santiago, in Chile, really.

[Femi Oke] Yes, please, Sarath. I’m just going to interject for one moment. We have two microphones in the room. If you wanted to talk to plenary one, now is the time to stand behind either the front one or the back one. Please, go ahead and do that. I will see you and then bring you into the conversation in a moment. Sarath, please.

[Sarath BS Abayakoon] Just to add a little bit, according to when we do this planning, we need to have the stakeholder interventions, and use of stakeholders, and interviewing and all that. I see that in some of the project, it’s not happening. Probably it happens during the project time. When the project is over, then we move to a different project, and in that project, we probably will not... Those are separate. So, the problem we have, I have noted in our countries that there’s no continuous involvement of stakeholders in the process. So that is a problem.

[Renée Amilcar] This is where I think the UITP can help because this association, which is a member-led association, is very focused on how we can work better together, how we can network, how we can advocate for transit. And by having all the stakeholders in the same room, I think it’s possible to have this vision and to make sure that after that, we can continue to have public transit at the forefront of our decision.

[Ydanis Rodriguez] But I think that, again, I know that this is a great audience of leaders across the globe. I think that from institutions such as the World Bank, that have a lot of influence among many governments, we had to change the culture. We come from places that... Think about the United States, any movies made by Hollywood always had a car as a symbol of progress. I feel that what our generation, it doesn’t matter our age, are responsible, is to push everyone to think outside the box, to know that if you think about creating better conditions, investing more in the infrastructure that from major financial institution, you guys have influence in many governments. As those people come to institutions such as the World Bank, you need to be a leader in bringing that conversation. As I said, the natural disaster that is hitting our planet is so strong. We have in the future of our children, grandchildren, a risk. I think that if you think about how do we visualize the future of our society, definitely the car ownership. Thinking about that the street is private access and not public access. At New York City DOT, we are responsible to manage 27% of the land on New York City, 6,000 miles, 800 bridges. Seth Contreras, who is back there, is part of the thing of micromobility. What they’re doing right now is working with the private sector, giving opportunities through pilot projects to those who want to be an EV charging station, to come and demonstrate if that can work. As soon as we went through the pilot project, then we changed the rule in New York City, allowing private sector that wants to bring EV charges in the sidewalk for them to respond to the market. I think that it’s about changing. It’s about changing the perspective. It’s about understanding that, yes, people use cars, and there’s not a war against the car manufacturers. Even they, they have to be accountable. The same trucks that are built in Europe. They come with different sensors and technologies than the trucks that come to the United States. We also had to change law of the federal standards so that those who are driving the big trucks, they need to look on how they can protect the pedestrians. The tech community, the government, the private sector, everyone has to come on board. I feel that if we listen to the new generation, those 30, 40 years old, what they saying is about, yes, we can have a car, but we can use a Zipcar, a car sharing. Yes, biking is not only for delivery workers. In New York City, if you go through any place, and all of you, most of you have been, who are biking in New York City? Upper class, middle class, people with PhD, master and MBA. We had to educate now our working-class community for them to understand that they buy half an hour every day, they live an average of six more years. It’s about bringing the benefit, promoting that, yes, you can have a car, but yet because you have a car, it doesn’t make you better than anybody else. In many countries, in the Caribbean, if you are in government, you have to be in six or 10 pick-up cars in order to do campaigning, because if you don’t show power, your people will not vote for you. I think, again, it’s about changing the culture, working with international financial institution for them to support the country, to invest in infrastructure that should be bringing safer for pedestrian, for cyclists, and even for drivers too.

[Femi Oke] All right. So, I’m going to remind our plenary that our focus is capacity and government for implementation. You are brilliant on sharing your challenges. A plus. But getting to the nitty-gritty of the implementation, which is why it’s so hard. I’m going to... So, just bear with me one minute. I have a lot of questions online. Minister Tonato, I’m going to give the first one to you. It comes from Maureen. Hello, Maureen, who is watching from Kenya. “Transport and infrastructure should be long lasting. How do we ensure that this happens, especially in Africa?”

[José Tonato] Thank you. As I was saying, this discussion, and I was also attending a number of other discussions, makes me convinced of something. Transportation is always thought of upstream. Urban planning, upstream. When you have a city plan and a specific blueprint for the city, transportation will not be, as a beginning, a problem that will have to be solved. We don’t see it that way. But the different sections of the city have to be connected. The different functions have to exist. There have to be relations between those sections. To optimize transportation, thinking upstream. Infrastructurally speaking, one has to be organized in order to transport as many people as possible so that they may be moved around with as little infrastructure as possible and as little assets and money as possible. I always come back to Cotonou. When you have a little moped or motorcycle, that is all good and well. It works, but you’re transporting one person, just one person. One person allowing another person to move. And these little mopeds or vehicles emit gas. Is that sustainable for the environment? That is the question one must ask oneself. We have had several experiences. Electrifying motorcycles, that has been done elsewhere. Why did it not work? I even saw an operation where mopeds and vehicles were crushed. There are some of those moto-taxis in Cotonou. They have two liters of fuel. To do so, they need half a day. They’re given electrical motorcycles. They have a capacity of about 70 kilometers, and the batteries are stored in poor conditions, in very bad conditions. All of a sudden, there is a breakdown, the tire, you lose something, you lose a part. Of course, the thermal motorcycles are coming back, little by little, because the electrical ones haven’t worked because people are saying it is not sustainable to use electric motorcycles because this and that has happened. There aren’t enough charging stations, etcetera. Setting up an apparatus, a specific system where there is, of course, capacity creation and building, installing an infrastructure, but also to charge batteries. All of this goes hand in hand. All of these elements evolve hand in hand, simultaneously. Infrastructures, of course, paths for pedestrians, for bicycle riders. We have to have the appropriate cycling paths. All of this has to be done because the problem is that the car is a symbol of success. As soon as you can do so, you buy a car. We know that is very true in African countries. Even those that do not really have the means to do so will try as much as possible to buy a car. Where they might buy an old car, and those cars will pollute because they are in very poor shape, in very bad shape, they can’t have more than one year of use, really. All of that waste is waste that is created and, of course, piled on top of other piles of waste. Waste after waste, after waste. If people cannot go out of their home and use a transportation method, because they might be late, they can actually move and be on time with sustainable infrastructures. That is what we want to create, set up, and then have an electrical bus network and then, a waterway transportation system, because Grand Nokoué, that’s 16 communes around the Nokoué Lake, and everyone goes to Cotonou through two roads that are, of course, congested and, of course, there are bottlenecks all day long, pretty much, or 50% of the day or more. All of this is done in a sporadic fashion, and it is not well distributed. Some people use the lakes, some people use their mopeds, motorcycles, little busses, all sorts of funny types of vehicles in order to go from one area to the next. We have to offer a better organized and more sustainable solution and especially convert people, as it were, gradually, little by little with sustainable transportation.

[Renée Amilcar] I will retort to your benefit in French, if you don’t mind, because this is important to me. How do you implement? How do you set that up? How do you execute it? Do you agree? As a Minister, you need some audacity. You have to make some decisions, and that means that you have to have some courage. Of course, car drivers won’t be very pleased, but that is what will leave enough space for public transportation. I’m President of the International Association of Public Transportation. Those who have the means to make these decisions, like you, like yourself, and that will make sure that the future is nicer and healthier, what are you going to do? I agree with my colleague, José. Sorry, because we’re not here to have a conflict against cars or to fight against cars. We don’t want to be pitted against automobiles. We want to focus on those areas where there is too much traffic, traffic jams. I’m not against using a car, but how does this get created so that each, every person is satisfied and we can move ahead with this strategy? Of course, public transportation has to be at the front of the stage, because we see countries where there are horrible traffic jams and millions are spent and wasted. You’re spending and wasting time in your car and you’re not working. So, you have an opportunity here, Excellency, Minister, this is a challenge for you.

[José Tonato] I totally agree with you. That is the inclusive dimension of what we wish to do. Having sufficient space for everyone, enough maneuvering margin for everyone. That’s where things have to be well-organized, to guarantee sustainability towards the future. It is only thus that you may decide you’re taking your own bicycle, your own car, a little boat, the infrastructure that can frame all of this and that will make it possible to do so easily. Of course, people will choose the transportation mode that is the most comfortable for themselves, and of course, in full respect of the environment. That is what is most important. [Femi Oke] Minister Muñoz, I want to go to those two questions very quickly. [Crosstalk]. [Interpreter] [Speaking in French].

[Juan Carlos Muñoz] If you’re thinking about capacity building and how do we change things, I think that the decarbonization goals are key. I am stunned that even though the transport sector is responsible for 30% of the emissions, most of our NDCs and most of our countries have not made any kind of commitment towards reducing emissions from the transport sector. That’s a great tool to tell our citizens that we need to do it differently. I also think that we should not only put our effort in making our public transport better, our biking better, but also how to deal with the increasing number of miles driven by cars. I think that the congestion charging scheme that has been successfully implemented in many cities, and now in New York, are again a game changer. They are working well, they are being able to gather resources and to make cities work better. That’s also a tool we need to expand to working in other cities of the world.

[Femi Oke] I have two minutes and two questions. Part of that two minutes will be you asking your question. Go ahead, sir. [Christian MaCrae] Christian MaCrae, Norman MaCrae Foundation. Over 50 years, my father and I have been mainly interested in how data is publicly brainstormed, and then how is it updated in maps. Awkwardly, in the last 18 months, I found that chats and LLMs can be very good at brainstorming, but when I tried to put in your conference agenda into these LLMs, they didn’t come up with anything, probably because they didn’t have a Femi in their mindset. [Femi Oke] Sir… [Christian MaCrae] But my question is… [Femi Oke] Go ahead. [Christian MaCrae] My question is, how do we get an LLM to have read the 20 years of your conferences and then to distribute that out through DC in public places? Because I think that’s needed. [Femi Oke] Thank you for that assignment. I will get working on that one. Hello, good morning. What’s your question? [Aiden] Good morning. Hello, everyone. My name is Aiden, and my question is, what role do innovative emerging technologies like electric vehicles, green fuel solutions, or on-road charging stations play role in transforming transportation? And how can we scale and implement these solutions to underserved populations? Thank you. [Femi Oke] I’m going to take the second part because that’s on topic for this particular plenary, which is how can we scale, which is the how do we do this? Who is looking excited? Ydanis. [Ydanis Rodriguez] Yeah. [Femi Oke] It’s on. [Ydanis Rodriguez] Yeah. New York City, we always believe that we are the best. You cannot hide that one. [Femi Oke] You start the fight in the last one minute. Be prepared to fight in the coffee break.

[Ydanis Rodriguez] Definitely, we are the largest one, biggest numbers of e-charges that we’ve been putting in our streets. We’re working with the tech community, as I said, Seth Contreras is part of the team of policy. What we are doing is working with the National Grid, with the Con Ed [Consolidated Edison], because when it came to e-charges, not only what we, from the government side, want to do is about the power. Can we have Con Ed, which is the entity in New York City or the National Grid? I feel that from the academic, from the government, from the advocate, from mayors, from previous mayors to current mayors, there’s a commitment to electrify. As I said, we have former members of DCAS. DCAS is the agency that manages all the New York City public fleet. We already have major national biodistribution that they also are moving their vehicles to be electric. I think that the challenges that we have, and I don’t know in other cities, but it’s about the power from the National Grid to Con Ed, that we need to build more e-charges for vehicles. When it comes to e-bikes, we are moving into that, incentivizing more. Right now, we are putting millions of dollars in the street where we are giving 400 e-bikes in a pilot project to delivery workers for the entry change. Those bikes that they were using to the new ones that are more battery-certified in the new type of e-bike. I think that definitely it’s only one city. I think when it came to United States, and I know that this is a priority for all of us, regardless of where we are coming from, to look on how we can electrify and how to make our fleet, from government to private, more electric. I think with the Zipcar, which is the company also that we are using in our city that we want to bring... Well, we’re working to bring a shared car service. A person doesn’t have to buy the car, but to share the car. We’re working with a company also to see how they can would more shared cars being electric.

[Juan Carlos Muñoz] Excuse me. Let me mention that when we’re thinking of decarbonization, it’s very easy to go towards making our system electric. We need to also think before how do we request our transport system to demand less energy. That’s where I think that the 15-minute city, how we think of walking and biking can become really, really attractive. I think that’s part of the room that we need to look at and that very rarely our cities do. It’s very important when we turn now into electric busses about how can we allow our local cities, our small cities, to move towards electric busses as well? Because of the reasons I mentioned before. One thing that is very important into this conversation is how do we walk with the traditional “hombre camión,” the person that has been working, driving the bus for decades with his father and grandparents, and how we can help them make the transition towards electricity. They feel so super proud when they do. Now, the way we do it in Chile is we make some bidding processes where we force them to compete. Very often they win because they know the city, they have the terminals, they have the drivers, but the transition is something that we need to let them do. We need to understand that they also need the support of financial institutions to get the funding for them to build the terminals, buy or take the loans for the busses, and some energy distribution companies. The recipe for getting electric busses in all our small cities require from the government, from the regulator, to provide some framework where this combination of financial institutions, energy distribution, and the local company can work together well.

[Femi Oke] Mr. Muñoz, Ydanis, Renée, Minister Tonato, Sarath, I am taking you to the coffee break because there are more questions to be asked. You’ve got our conversation. Our thoughts started for the next two days, and we thank you for that. Your panel. [Applause]