Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen!

I am happy to welcome you to the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. We are lucky to witness a historic event as it is the first time the problem of road safety is being considered at a global level and with the support of the United Nations.

For those whose job it is to save lives on the roads it becomes obvious that there is no way to solve the problem on one’s own, by means of one country. Road safety is a shared challenge of us all and globalization has almost cancelled the borders between countries, people easily travel all around the world so it became impossible to effectively fight for the road safety by means of national programs only.

The year 2009 will mark the transition from individual, regional and national programs on traffic safety to a global one that will take into account particularities of different countries and best world experience. We are facing the challenge of global road safety for the first time and we will be best able to cope with it if we work together. The very fact that the conference is being held at such a high level is a breakthrough. Regular meetings and discussions on the subject have been held for a long time but never before at a global level and with the support of the United Nations . The Moscow conference will unite those who are dedicated to improving the safety of our roads and develop a comprehensive and shared approach to the problem.

While organizing the conference we have benefitted from the best experience and expertise in road injury prevention. Our aim is to exchange best practice in effective road safety action programs, creating a common database of world experience that will strengthen every nations capacity to make roads safe. This will ensure that the results of the Moscow conference will be of lasting significance at a global level and encourage commitment to action by all nations. For It is obvious that the implementation of truly effective road safety programs require strong political will, common aims and the mobilization of the resources at every level: global, regional, national and local.

Together we should make this Conference a breakthrough in the global fight for road safety and make the deaths counter turn backwards starting from November 2009.