On December 19, 2013, pHigh Speed Rail Investment Economics Round Tableq jointy sponsored by OECD/ITF and Planning Commission of India at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, India. This conference is aimed at jointly inspecting the driving factors determining the high-speed rail investment cost and looking back on the economic effect brought about by the high-speed rail construction and operation and the enlightenment of Indian high-speed rail development. There were altogether 40-odd experts and scholars attending this conference mainly from a dozen countries and regions with the high-speed rail apart from India, particularly involving Japan, France, Spain, Italy, Britain, South Korea, China and China Taiwan, the USA, etc. Prof. Wu Jianhong from our school was kindly invited as the only expert from Mainland China to deliver the keynote speech.
On the opening ceremony was held at Vigyan Bhavan on December 18, which was presided over by Mr. Manoj, senior consultant of Planning Commission of India in charge of the railway affairs. M. Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of Planning Commission of India, and M. Kharge, minister of Ministry of Indian Railway respectively presented the brief introduction of such issues as the background, planning, estimate and appraisal, investment and policy of the development of high-speed rail in India. Mr. S.Perkins, director of OECD/ ITF Research Center introduced the international experience in respect of the high-speed rail investment policy and economics. At the subsequent roundtable, Prof. C. Nash from University of Leeds, UK, Prof. Y. Crozet from University of Lyon, France, F. Kurosaki, director of Japan Transport Economics Research Center (JTERC), F. Croccolo, deputy director of Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Prof. R. Cervero of University of California, Berkeley, Dr. C. Lee, deputy president of Korean Transport Research Institute, Prof. J.Preston from University of Southampton and Prof. S.K. Jason CHANG from National Taiwan University gave their respective speeches, focusing on such topics as pOpportunities for Investment on High-speed Railq, pInvestment Appraisal of French TGVq, pInvestment Policy for Japanese Shinkansen Railwayq, etc. Prof. Wu Jianhong made the keynote speech entitled pPreliminary Analysis of Chinaos High-Speed Rail Financial Condition and Economic Effectq, which was fully affirmed by the international colleagues, particularly drawing the closer attention from senior officials, scholars and railway professionals of the host country.
The International Transport Forum (ITF for short, http://www. internationaltransportforum.org), based in Paris, is and intergovernmental organization for international cooperation directly affiliated to OECD in the transport field, highly reputed as the think tank for the global transport policy. The annual summit conferences attended by the transport ministers of the major countries and regions and all publications have exerted the extremely significant impact on the formulation of the relevant international transport policies. Its predecessor was European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) which has enjoyed a history of more than 50 years. In 2011 Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China was officially identified as one of its 54official members.
