Paris, 23 November 2011 – H.E. Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Zainal, Ambassador of Malaysia to France, attended a roundtable meeting on ‘Future Cities: Urban Mobility’ organized by the Malaysia-Europe Forum (MEF) held at the Thales headquarters in Paris on Wednesday, 23rd November 2011. Other than Paris, the MEF Roundtables Series on Sustainability were also held at other European cities namely Madrid and London.
The Paris MEF Roundtable was attended by about 30 participants including Paris MIDA Director, Mrs Balkish Mohd Yassin and Paris Matrade, Trade Commissioner, Mrs Diana Talit. Among the panelists were Ms. Natasha Zulkifli, Executive Director of MEF; Mr. Gabriel Colceag, Vice President, Rail Signaling for Urban Lines, Thales; Mr. Jean-Marc Janaillac, Chief Executive Officer of RATP Development (Parisian Metro operator); Mr. Jean-François Jannin, Manager of Intelligent Transport Systems Task Force, French Ministry of Transport and Mr. Mohamad Nur Kamal, CEO of Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).
Earlier the Malaysian delegation was given a guided visit to the Operation Centre of the Parisian Metro Line 13. The Metro Line 13 is the longest line out of a total of 16 metro lines in Paris. It is 24.3 km long, has 32 stations, was opened in 1911 and is today one of Paris’ busiest metro lines, carrying approximately 650, 000 passengers daily with annual traffic of more than 200 million passengers.
The Malaysia-Europe Forum (MEF) is a not-for-profit civil society organization, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur with a branch secretariat in Berlin. Launched in 2009 by YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, the MEF aims to promote Malaysia in Europe and vice versa, through the exchange of views, furthering of mutual interests and enhancement of links between and among European and Malaysian business leaders, professionals, scientists, academics and humanitarians at a non-governmental level. Roundtables and dialogues on issues relating to trade, business and politics have been organized by MEF in Kuala Lumpur, Brussels, Munich and Vienna since 2009. In 2011, MEF has expanded their focus to include the youth, via the MEF Young European internship programme as well as a series of roundtables focusing on topical issues under the MEF Roundtable Series on Sustainability.
