The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and the Korea Road Association jointly hosted a ceremony for the 25th Road Day at The K Hotel Seoul on July 7. The Road Day was first launched on July 7, 1992, when the Seoul-Busan Expressway was opened as a symbol of Korea’s economic progress.
The theme of the ceremony read “the Road that led the Korean economic develop to the world and to the future,” to prepare for road construction in the future and commemorate the successful management of the 25th World Road Congress Seoul 2015, which was held on Nov. 6 last year.
In his congratulatory speech, Minister Kang said “we ought to think about mixing high-tech and highway construction technology to cope preemptively with the changes that might occur in the highway construction industry and make the highway construction industry a high value-added industry with creative ideas and thinking power.”
A total of 700 people from the construction industry, including government officials of highway-related ministries, legislative leaders and other organizations attended the event, led by Minister Kang Ho-in and Chairman Kim Hak-song of the Korea Road Association, as well as the president of the Korea Expressway Corp. In particular, Rep. Cho Jeong-shik, chairman of the Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee of the 20th National Assembly attended the event and congratulated those in the road construction industry for their efforts to keep the country’s highways safe and run successfully thus far.
A total of 99 leading executives from the construction industry won government medals and citations for their contributions to the growth of the industry. President Kim Hak-song of the Korea Expressway Corp. won the most important medal, the Industrial Merit Gold Tower Medal, while Vice President Park Kwang-ha of Korea Consultant Co. won the Industrial Merit Silver Medal. President Kim won the medal in recognition of his contribution to the development of the highway construction industry by his successful organization as the chairman of the Organizing Committee of the World Road Congress 2015 in Seoul, and the settlement of Ex gas stations on new highways around the country. Vice President Park won the medal for his contribution to the export of highway designs and construction technology.
Various sideline events took place at the ceremony, with “future roads” as a theme for participants at the event.
Also among the sideline events was a forum on future highways that discussed issues like the direction of highway construction policy and the reform of highway standards to cope with changes occurring in the future that might effect highway construction. The Road Transportation Council Board Meeting should be the window for communication between the central government and the regional administrations on matters related to the management of the highways and construction.
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Korea Expressway Corp. Kim Hak-song, receives the Order of Industrial Merit, Gold Tower, from MOLIT Minister Kang Ho-in.
The 25th World Road Congress Seoul 2015 adopted the Seoul Ministerial Declaration calling for the understanding of the international situation of pending road transport issues and the expansion of global cooperation.
It is the first ministerial declaration that has been issued in the 100-year history of the Congress. The statement said each country agreed to share research and practices on such issues as fiscal projects and budgetary allocations of road construction and maintenance, and promised international cooperation to share knowledge and best practices, and ramp up capabilities for the improvement of road transportation services. The participants also discussed R&D investments and the promoting of technology sharing to lay a foundation for eco-friendly vehicles and self-driving systems.
Forty-eight ministers and vice ministers from 40 countries participated in the Congress, which also attracted some 1,200 policy-makers from 120 countries, including central and regional government officials, as well as roughly 3,500 Korean and foreign road transport experts.
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