CETMO
www.cetmo.org

CETMO -Transport Study Center for the Western Mediterranean - was set up in 1985 following a decision made by the countries in the area, in accordance with the recommendations of the Conference of Transport Ministers of Mediterranean countries held in Salonika under the auspices of the United Nations. The prime objective of CETMO is to co-operate in the improvement of transport conditions between the West Mediterranean EU countries and the Maghreb, through studies on transport infrastructure, flows, statistics and legislation and through the development of initiatives to facilitate transport in the region.

The collaboration received from CETMO National Co-ordinators representing the Transport Ministries of the seven countries in the area is of utmost importance to CETMO and the achievement of its goals. The National Co-ordinators’ role is fundamental, not only for developing CETMO’s work schedule, but also for procuring national transport institutions' and organisations' involvement in the studies and initiatives it carries out.

The following are some of the assignments in which CETMO plays a leading role:

• Analysing trends in trade in the Western Mediterranean, encouraging discussion on medium-term transport strategies between Southern Europe and Maghreb countries and carrying out studies of traffic flows and transport chains through both shores.
• Drawing up and promoting strategic transport-network planning, that provides for setting goals and establishing the means to achieve them, in order to enhance transport flows in the region.
• Contributing in the field of transport research, primarily under the framework of COST and the subsequent European RTD Framework Programmes.
• Facilitating the tasks of studying and identifying international transport priorities in the Western Mediterranean by updating databases. This goal is achieved by carrying out regular updates and constant improvements to the CETMO Database.

Since the beginning of 1997, CETMO has become the technical secretariat of the GTMO, Group of the Transport Ministers of the Western Mediterranean countries. The GTMO, whose aim is to boost the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership in terms of transport within the region, has amongst its missions, the definition and promotion of a multimodal trans-Mediterranean transport network. In its capacity as GTMO Technical Secretariat, CETMO closely follows the strategy established by the EC under the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Transport Forum.

NESTEAR
www.nestear.net

NESTEAR is a private company founded by researchers of INRETS, in the framework of the new law voted in France in July 1999 relative to “innovation and research”. Its objective is to apply and disseminate results of researches in the field of transport evaluation. A “convention” is established between NESTEAR and INRETS giving NESTEAR access to research results and bringing back to INRETS experiences of applications. NESTEAR staff experience is 15 years in European transport, through many studies and research projects.

The applied methodology develops at three levels:

• prospective analysis and scenarios definitions for evaluation of strategy of actors and policies,
• transport modelling: supply and demand modelling with a wide access to different families of models, and
• system of information, including monitoring and follow up of policy (ex-post analysis).

The field of application is socio-economic evaluation of projects and policies in Europe (including Central Europe) and the Mediterranean area, for all modes and intermodal transport. The methodology of NESTEAR is applied at international, national and regional scale, focusing in particular upon the impact of interregional and international transport on the different spatial levels, including the land-use planning and environment.

Mcrit
www.mcrit.com

MCRIT is a small high-tech company with long experience on software research and planning consultancy. From conducting strategic studies of regional and transport policies, MCRIT has been increasingly active researching new technologies to develop user-friendly and intelligent e_goverment and e_learning suport systems. MCRIT has co-ordinated three major research projects in this direction (new software technologies to support open and distributed multi-software information, forecast and evaluation systems) within the 4th and 5th EU Research Programme (Strategic Transport): “Bridges” (1989-1999), “ASSEMBLING” (1989-2000) and “spotlightsTN” (2000-2002), together with 15 Universities, research institutions and companies from most EU countries.

Consultancy was the initial aim of the company and, since its foundation, and, in paralel to research, a large number of strategic studies have been carried out at local and European level, mostly in the field of urban, regional and environmental impacts of transport infrastructures. Mcrit has worked for DG REGIO, DG TREN, the European Investment Bank, United Nations and a number of national and regional administrations responsible for transport infrastructure planning and management.

For DG TREN, Mcrit has participated in the Infrastructure Needs Assessment studies for Western mediterranean countries (INFRAMED, 1998) and became GIS-Adviser of TINA for Central and Eastern Countries (1999). For the EIB, Mcrit has developed the IGIS System, an Internet service with all EIB transport infrastructure projects, that provides a territorial evaluation (2001).

Based on the experience of these strategic studies at European level (and others at regional and local level), and the outcomes from the major researches co-ordinated in the 4th and 5th Framework Programme, during 2000 and 2001 MCRIT has developed and implemented a number of advanced and participatory planning-support systems, mainly in the transport and spatial development field.

IRAT

The Research Institute on Service Activity - IRAT, (Istituto di Ricerche sulle Attività Terziarie – IRAT), founded in Naples in 1983, is a permanent research unit of the National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – CNR) which is a government body responsible for the promotion and regulation of research to further scientific and technological progress in Italy. Its aim is to carry out business-economic research (mainly by empirical analysis) on service sectors.

The Institute’s experienced staff includes 18 interdisciplinary researchers (6 of them involved in transport research) and 5 technical and administrative assistants. IRAT is part of a larger scientific network, with close links to other national and international research institutions and Universities. IRAT is member of the European Council for Small Business (affiliate of the International Council for Small Business).

IRAT’s research areas includes: Business Service, Tourism and Freight Transport & Logistics. The project will be managed by the department of Freight Transport and Logistics. Research carried out within Freight Transport & Logistics area is focused on management, entrepreneurial culture and policy. The main subject areas include: maritime transport, port strategies, logistics and road transport. A number of cross-modal issues are also covered such as information and communication technologies, education and training, transport performance and evaluation, buyer-supplier relationships and transport industry analysis.

The consistent experience of the members of Freight transport and Logistics Department in maritime issues and goods transport will be precious for the development of the tasks concerning the analysis of the “strategic nodes” within the international transport networks, mainly relating to the growing role of the Mediterranean Basin. The expertise in the study of the business actors strategies and their relations dynamics represents another key factor for the development of the project.

SNED

SNED is the Moroccan State Society responsible, since 1981, for the carrying out of studies on the feasibility of a fixed link through the straits of Gibraltar. The activities of SNED are the studies and research of transport development between the shores of the Western Mediterranean, through the straits of Gibraltar. The activities carried out include the investigation of the environment (e.g. geological and drilling studies), engineering studies and the work related to socio-economic aspects. In this respect, the following should be mentioned: the increasing knowledge of the Europe – Morocco traffic due to the set up of an observatory of current traffic; the origin/destination investigation campaigns for the maritime transport in the area; and maintaining the database for the update of the prevision models used for the project.

ETIC

ETIC is a specialised Tunisian office in the field of transport. It has recently taken part, among others, in: the study of the Tunisian national master plan for transport (Ministry of Transport – World Bank), the study on the transport of goods in Tunisia (Ministry of Transport), the appraisal mission and the project for the rehabilitation of the classified road network of Tunisia (African Development Bank), the definition study for the elaboration of a study on the development of inter – city travellers by rail (SNCFT), or the feasibility study for a suburban rail facility between Sousse, Kalâa and Kalâa Kébira in the Sahel region of Tunisia (SNCFT).

KHAN CONSULTANTS

KHAN CONSULTANTS is an Algerian specialised society in management consulting and in the field of infrastructures (energy, transport, hydraulic…). The society has been operational for two years. With regard to the participation of KHAN CONSULTANTS in the transport sector, the following should be mentioned:

• Discussions in progress with the Wilaya of Algiers for a master scheme study of transport in the town of Algiers.
• Discussions in progress in view of an advisory mission for the Ministry of Transport in the framework of the World Bank finance programme.
• Current negotiation with the Ministry of Transport for a study titled “Urban transport and energy”.