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Netherlands officials hold traffic and road safety seminar

By Tatia Megeneishvili
Wednesday, February 26
The Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia, together with Europe House and the Georgian Partnership for Road Safety, organized a Traffic and Road Safety Seminar in Tbilisi on February 25.

The seminar began with welcoming remarks from H.E. Ambassador Hans Horbach and opening remarks by Davit Narmania, Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, presentations by Nugzar Gasviani, Deputy Chairman of the Roads Department, Natia Mikeladze, Deputy Minister of Economy, and by Hans Godthelp, a Dutch infrastructure and road safety expert.

According to Narmania, “We should leap through the barriers. That’s why it is very important for us to share the experience of other successful countries,” Narmania stated.

According to Gasviani, the Roads Department is cooperating with the Internal Ministry to solve the problem of black dots. “Black Dots are places where most accidents occur,” explained Gasviani. He also said that the Roads Department is working with many donor organizations, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. With their help, they are planning many changes in the future.

The second session of the seminar featured representatives of the leading Dutch companies in the field of road safety. They spoke about various aspects of road safety, automatic traffic enforcement, management software for road safety and measuring mobility.

Each speaker presented the work of their companies in slideshows. Gatso representative, Philip Wijers, presented a slideshow entitled “Automatic Traffic Enforcement: Get it Right, Make Roads Safe”, VIA representative, Erik Donkers, presented a slideshow, named “What software can do for road safety”, Philips representative, Natalia Eremeeva presented a slideshow named “Lighting and the city”, Goudappel/MoveMobility representative, Tonny Bosch, presented a slideshow, named “Creating better cities”, and NMI representative, Boy Hendriksen, presented a slideshow, named “Measuring mobility”.

Later, the event moved to Europe House. Later Levan Izoria, Deputy Interior Minister presented the keynote speech. He was followed by Professor Fred Wegman.

The evening ended with a thematic exhibition From A to B by Guram Tsibakhashvili, and will continue 4 days.