FORTY NINTH ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY - ATHENS, GREECE - 2023
The 49th meeting of the General Assembly of the Member Nations of ITA was held in Athens, Greece on 14 and 17 May 2023 under the Presidency of Mr Arnold Dix (Australia), assisted by the Executive Council Members.
1. OPENING SPEECH
The President Arnold Dix welcomed the delegates of the ITA Member Nations to the 49th ITA General Assembly in Athens, Greece. Then he thanked the Greece team for their organization.
He thanked India and Türkiye whom for the last 7 months have displayed such professional conduct, in endorsing ITA to go into their countries and to assist other organizations with tunnelling activities.
Also, he thanked the Executive Council and both him and Olivier Vion thanked the secretariat for their hard work and help when Covid appeared. The President declared the 49th ITA General Assembly to be opened.
He requested an official moment of silence dedicated to the earthquake in Turkiÿe. 45 of the 79 Member Nations (57 with right of vote) participated or were represented in the General Assembly so the quorum was reached, and the GA could deliberate.
2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
This year the notice, the agenda and the enclosures were sent on March 14, 2023 to all 78 Member Nations. The President presented the updated agenda; it was approved without amendments.
3. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2022
The minutes of the General Assembly 2022 were sent on March 8, 2023 (English), they were approved without any comment.
4. REPORT OF ACTIVITY OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
The President reminded that the Executive Council report activity was sent to the Member Nations on April 21,2023 and asked for the comments from the Assembly. A “public” version has also been released (Encl. 1) highlighting the main actions of the year.
4.1 Functioning of ITA Executive Council
⦁ The president introduced the executive council’s key strategy for ITA which is ONE STRONG ITA:
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One global organization for the underground world
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One reputation in subject matter excellence
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One reputation in knowledge exchange, training & education
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One reputation as global policy influencer & industry position
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One reputation for networking
⦁ There is also an internal decision test: putting the interests of the global ITA before any individual, sector, grouping or alliance no matter what the past practice. The wish of every rule to be applied across every part of ITA equitably whether it’s in Member Nation, WG, Committee. This means elections every 3 years.
⦁ He also talked about ORCA: new slogan, vision, mission, strategy and asked for comments but there were no ameendments.
⦁ ITA 50th anniversary: A task force has been settled (Jenny Yan, Andrea Pigorini, Monika Mitew-Czajewska, Jamal Rostami, Gérard Seingre and Olivier Vion). The aim of the TF is to organize different events. This Task force is working since last year on the different events and proposals that will be organized at this occasion at the WTC but also along the year in different part of the world. See §15
4.2 ITA Events
⦁ ITA Awards 2022 were held for the third time in digital platform from the 6th of December to the 8th of December. 22 finalists from 11 countries were selected by 17 judges.
⦁ This year the Awards will take place in Mumbai, India on November 24th, 2023.
4.3 Publications and Communication
⦁ This year we sent 2 newsletters ITA@news". It allows us to share our news, and to inform our members. In addition, we continue to spread our “ITA Scoop-it” newsletter twice a month.
⦁ ITA is present on 3 major social networks: LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
⦁ Concerning the LinkedIn company page, we can see a significant increase of followers. This year we reached more than 6000 followers i.e., + 34% in 1 year.
⦁ The ITA Twitter account has now more than 1400 followers with an increase of 12%.
⦁ The ITA YouTube channel has been enhanced with the recorded session of the Muir Wood lecture 2022 presented by Tom Melbye during the World Tunnel Congress in Copenhagen.
Website:
⦁ After very strong increases in traffic (due to new habits following the pandemic), the ITA websites still record a solid 11% traffic increase this year.
⦁ With traffic via Mobile 42%, “About Tunnelling” +25%, “ITA Activities” +20%
⦁ Connections came from more than 150 countries within head ranking: 1. China, 2. United States, 3. India, 4. UK, 5. Japan, 6. France & Italy...
⦁ Currently the ExCo is working on the Data Base of projects in collaboration with WG.
5. APPROVAL OF NEW MEMBERS
5.1 Member Nations
The PTTS requested to be the official representative of Pakistan in ITA. The GA voted and agreed. Kamal Azfar, the president of PTTS (Pakistan Tunnelling and Trenchless Society) made a speech.
Request for membership: Corporate Members (CAM): 2
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399 |
GEEG |
Italy |
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400 |
Pinssar Pty Ltd |
Australia |
The voting delegates of the concerned Member Nations did not object and the GeneralAssembly confirmed these candidatures.
Resignations: Corporate Members: 8
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368 |
Sung Kuyn Kwan University |
Korea |
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188 |
Geodata |
Italy |
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366 |
Selem |
UAE |
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379 |
CETCO |
Poland |
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298 |
Sade |
France |
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363 |
Stunex |
Switzerland |
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388 |
IDS Georadar |
Italy |
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132 |
Herrenknecht USA |
USA |
Exclusions: The exclusions of Affiliate Members, pronounced for non-payment of the subscription fee forover three years, are the following ones: Corporate Members: 5
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369 |
Orica |
Australia |
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383 |
Bentley |
The Netherlands |
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112 |
National Authority for Tunnels |
Egypt |
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243 |
Smedi |
China |
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256 |
Euro Alliance |
Bulgaria |
5.2 Supporters
Request for membership: 1
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087 |
GEEG |
Italy |
Resignations: 3
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069 |
Sung Kuyn Kwan University |
Korea |
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009 |
Geodata |
Italy |
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082 |
IDS Georadar |
Italy |
6. REPORT FROM THE GOVERNANCE COUNCIL - COMMENTS FROM THE ASSEMBLY
Leslie Pakianathan and Bill Newns made a presentation to the General Assembly.
6.1 The role of the Governance Council
According to the constitution of ITA, it defines them as “examines the activity if the Executive Council and its conformance with the Statutes and By Laws, as well as reviewing governance, ethics and conduct of the Association”.
It’s independent of the ExCo, they are observers during ExCo meetings, they have to understand the general issues highlighted by the ORCA review and they ensure the correct application of it.
6.2 Summary of the Governance Council Observations
⦁ Series of one-to-one meetings during Copenhagen, then with the president, the treasurer, the executive director and the WG task force.
⦁ They have declared the Executive Council to be collaborative, focused, and effective.
⦁ New formation of the Sustainability Task Group and the Client Forum
⦁ They made some recommendations from good to better:
⦁ Support refreshed mission, form and function.
⦁ Bring forward communication especially the financial aspect and focus on risk management.
⦁ Review of function and operation of WG and By-laws
⦁ Proposed changes to revenue streams to pay for improved ITA services and mitigate risks.
⦁ Most importantly, obtain the MN feedback to shape the details of the ORCA recommendations for a “future ready” ITA with increased resilience.
6.3 Comments of the Assembly
No comments.
7. REPORT OF ACTIVITY OF THE MEMBER NATIONS
Thirty-six Member Nations 2022 activity reports were received at the Secretariat.
For the seventh year, the special magazine has been produced to convey the Member Nations' reports and it was distributed to all member nations and all the WTC participants and posted on ITA website.
All these Member Nations have sent their reports (some out of deadline, is the reason why they do not appear in the published magazine).
There are huge projects in many countries, and ITA encourages member nations to continue with their efforts to be active.
The reports came from following Member Nations: Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Finland, France,Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Türkiye, United States.
The activity report can be downloaded from our website : Member Nations (ita-aites.org)
News from the Member Nations
During the General Assembly, following Member Nations informed the Assembly of their actions. Also Olivier Vion has announced to be in contact with the new executive director of the Romanian Member Nation and announced some news:
- They want to revitalize the association attracting new corporate members,
- Promote tunnelling and micro-tunnelling,
- They are working on different topics such as: radioactive waste guidelines, educating training and organizing symposium.
Arnold Dix introduced and welcomed the new Executive Director Roland Herr who will take over Olivier Vion on July 1st . Then Hangseok Choi explained the process of recruiting the new Executive Director.
The task force was composed by Hangseok Choi, Andres Marulanda, Sanja Zlatanic, Andrea Pigorini and Klaus Rieker
Roland Herr thanked the ExCo. Arnold ended the 1st section of the 1st General Assembly by inviting the Nations Members to the cricket game occurring on Wednesday to celebrate the entry of Pakistan.
8. MEMBERSHIP
The ExCo has noticed the main issue in the association which is the ITA membership.
Currently there as 79 Member Nations, 30 honorary members (they don’t pay), 14 Prime Sponsors and 40 supporters, 127 corporate affiliate members and 92 individual affiliate members.
ITA membership is very diverse it includes public & private owners, owner’s engineering agencies, private & governmental planners, architects, engineering consultants, academia & researchers, heavy construction contractors, specialty contractors, materials & equipment suppliers, lawyers, politicians, economists, financiers and finally mine owners and operators.
In March, a virtual meeting happened between Member Nations and ExCo to announced suggested membership actions, less than a third MN attended
The ExCo then made the decision to allow MN additional time to review proposed membership changes. All the proposed membership actions will be submitted for detailed MN review and offered for voting at extraordinary GA held in September 2023. If GA decided to adopt the schedule, ExCo will be addressing required by- laws changes.
9. PREPARATION OF THE ELECTION ON AN ITA VICE-PRESIDENT
Two candidates: Hamdi Aydin (Türkiye) and Ioannis Fikiris (Greece)
Mr Hamdi Aydin drawback his candidature so the only candidate is: Ioannis Fikiris (Greece)
10. ITA PUBLICATIONS
The following reports have been published during the last year:
WG 11: An Owners Guide to immersed Tunnels and Annexes
WG 14: Tunnel Spoil handling, Treatment and Disposal from a Global Perspective
WG 22: Recommendations for the Application of ISO 19650 - Information Management Process and Responsability Matrix - Vol 1
WG22: BIM in Tunnelling - Guideline for Bored Tunnels - Vol 1
IMIA/ITA: Code of practice for risk management in tunnel works (3rd edition)
FUTURE WTC'S
WORLD TUNNEL CONGRESS 2024: China Civil Engineering Society (CCES) will organize the World Tunnel Congress and the 50th General Assembly of the Member Nations from 19 to 25 April 2024 in Shenzhen, China.
WORLD TUNNEL CONGRESS 2025: Swedish Rock Engineering Association will held the 51st General Assembly and WTC "Tunnelling into a sustainable future - methods and technologies" in Stockholm, Sweden, from 9 to 15 May, 2025.
World Tunnel Congress 2025 | 9-15 May 2025 in Stockholm, Sweden (wtc2025.se)
WORLD TUNNEL CONGRESS 2026: Tunnelling Association of Canada (TAC) will organize the World Tunnel Congress and the 52nd General Assembly of the Member Nations from 15 to 21 Mayl 2026 in Montréal, Canada.
The World Tunnel Congress 2026 - WTC2026
The 2023 activity report is available here