Dear colleagues and friends,

It is a great pleasure for me to share the main decisions that have been taken by the Association recently.

I will start with our governing instances, which we have renewed as planned, after an executive cycle that the COVID crisis had forced us to extend by one year.

Our friend Nazir Alli will be the next President of PIARC, starting in January 2022. We remember that he was the organiser of the remarkable World Road Congress held in Durban in 2003. Above all, the symbolic significance of this election must be stressed. Nazir will be the first President from the African continent, and only the third who is not from a rich country. His country, South Africa, can be proud to embody a transition that is faithful to our missions and to the principle of representativeness of our 125 member countries in their diversity.

The entire Executive Committee has been renewed, and I welcome its 25 members, who will be responsible for implementing the strategy decided by our Council. It is worth noting that the National Committees, which are essential to the dynamism and representativeness of international exchanges, have elected Clemente Poon (Mexico) as their representative. 

As "Past President", I myself will remain a member of the Executive Committee, and will endeavour to support its President and all our colleagues.

Finally, the city of Chambéry has been selected to host our Congress in 2026. This is another sign of the support that France has given to PIARC since its creation. This Congress will therefore succeed the one in Calgary, where we will meet virtually in February 2022, in just three months' time, and I urge you all to register now to take advantage of the very rich programme of sessions we are preparing.

Claude Van Rooten