A news conference of Mr.Alexander Yakovenko, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, and Mr. Victor Kiryanov, Head of the Road Safety Department, Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation.

October 29, 2009, Moscow, RIA Novosti

The news conference was held in order to announce the forthcoming First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.

The speakers drew attention of mass-media that the Conference is attracting a high level of participation. Heads of the governmental organizations responsible for road safety as well as representatives from international, regional and nongovernmental organizations from more than 110 countries will take part in the Conference.

The President of the Russian Federation Mr. Dmitry A. Medvedev will speak at the opening ceremony.

It has been estimated that road fatalities will be a leading cause of mortality by 2020 in middle and low income countries. It’s a global scale problem.

The Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mr.Alexander Yakovenko stated that Russia took the initiative to host such a conference with a strong attendance by minister-level governmental authorities dealing with road safety issues, anyhow.

The Head of the State Traffic Police of the Russian Federation Mr. Victor Kiryanov emphasized a great role of the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the UN Regional Commissions and the FIA Foundation in preparation of the Conference. The representatives from these organizations are expected to be the most active participants.

Mr. Victor Kiryanov stressed that the mankind sustains great losses through road accidents annually – nearly 1.3 million of people die are killed and from 20 to 50 million are injured or disabled. Young and able-bodied people are most affected. He noted the urgent need for coordinated actions and sharing of the experience. Russian authorities are consented to scrutiny a positive experience in other countries but are ready to present their own good practice examples of road safety improvement also.

He said: “We have some workouts to present. A goal-oriented approach to the road safety problem in our country gives particular results and a definite success. For the past two years more than 6 thousand human lives were saved but it is not a pretext to stop. We are committed to carry out extensive work among our personnel, to encourage civilized manners of all road traffic participants, to improve the system of the first aid to the injured and to advocate appropriate legislative models”.

On behalf of the Ministry of Interior the Chief State Inspector for Road Safety in Russia thanked leaders and employees of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Moscow City Government for their assistance in organizing the conference.

“Special thanks to SHELL, MERCEDES, MICHELIN and HYUNDAI Companies for the support of the Conference.” - Mr. Victor Kiryanov said, - “It is particularly pleasing that these companies are working out their own road safety initiatives.”

The objective of the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety is to facilitate an information exchange between the participants in order to make assessments of the magnitude of the problem and work out certain level of understanding how to tackle the global road safety crisis.