The Smart Move campaign, officially launched in Asia and the Pacific region at Busworld Asia in Shanghai, gains new partners in China, Japan and Australia and broadens its scope to further promote safe, green, efficient, user-friendly and affordable bus and coach transport services and achieve sustainable mobility for all.

Shanghai – Smart Move has been officially launched in Asia and the Pacific region on the occasion of the Busworld Asia 2010, which opened today in China on the theme “Better Transport, Better City Better Life”, in the framework of the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

At Busworld Asia inauguration ceremony, some 500 business leaders welcomed three new Chinese Smart Move partners namely: Yutong, Zhongtong Holding and Hunan CSR times electric. They joined the China Road Transport Association (CRTA), the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC, Australia) and the Nihon Bus Association (NBA, Japan) in the Smart Move partner community of over 60 bus and coach organisations and manufacturers around the globe.

Addressing the 10th jubilee ceremony of Busworld Asia, IRU President Janusz Lacny, congratulated the entire Busworld Asia team for this highly successful exhibition, saying, “The IRU is proud to be a partner of Busworld Asia because the role of bus and coach transport, not only in this region, but across the globe, is vital to achieve our common economic, social and environmental objectives.”

IRU Vice President Graham Smith, added, “Booming Asian economies and demographics call for safe, green, efficient, affordable and user-friendly means of meeting the mobility needs and expectations of the travelling public. Buses and coaches encompass all these qualities.  Doubling their use is the Smart policy Move to make the Shanghai World Expo’s motto ‘Better City, Better Life’ a reality, notably by inducing  new travelling patterns that will help better meet tomorrow’s mobility-related challenges and provide sustainable mobility to all citizens, including through integrated travel supply chains.”

Busworld President, Marc van den Bossche, concluded: “From what we see here in China and Asia in general, buses and coaches have a bright future in front of them, since they offer exactly what citizens and politicians need today. Doubling the use of bus and coach transport will not only offer efficient mobility and travel solutions to the public, but it will also dramatically improve road safety and air quality by reducing congestion and CO2 emissions, while creating millions of jobs and maintaining social cohesion here in China and everywhere in the world, where the Smart Move practical and proven solutions are implemented.”

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