The Spanish Railway Association presents to the General Meeting of members the Strategic Plan 2021- 2024, incorporates new partners, and reviews the 2020-2021 activities.
Mafex, the Spanish Railway Association, held its seventeenth General Meeting on 16th April 2021, with a wide participation of more than 80 companies represented from a total of 95 current partners, and where 9 of the 13 new current member companies were introduced since the last meeting took place in November: Fastening Excellence Center, Flanker, ITSS, MainRail, ICF – Ingeniería y Control Ferroviario, Belgorail España, Forging Steel Products, Smart Motors, and Masa-Mecanizaciones Aeronáuticas.
As part of this meeting, the Strategic Plan 2021 – 2024 was presented, which incorporates the priorities of the sector and of the railway industry for the coming years. The presented report includes an assessment about the consequences in the sector of the current crisis caused by the pandemic and the roadmap to be followed to support companies in the recovery throughout the duration of the plan. To this end, the main drivers that will condition the activity of the coming years for the industry (regulatory, technological, and market) are analysed.
The presentation included the strategic guidelines, initiatives and actions that will be deployed in the coming years by Mafex focused on innovation, internationalisation, and sector representation.
During the general meeting, in addition to the presentation of the new plan, an overview of the more than 200 actions organised and/or coordinated by Mafex during the past year was made. This summary also highlighted the increase of 20% of the number of partners in the last four years and the important progress made in terms of innovation actions. Mafex is currently participating in four projects, three in Europe. Among them stands out the incorporation of Mafex into the Staffer project, which brings together the key players in the railway industry to cooperate closely in the anticipation of training needs and the improvement of the dialogue between the education sector and the labour market. This is where Mafex collaborates with the main entities and manufacturers of the sector at European level.
On the other hand, the actions planned for the second semester of the year were presented, among which is the Rail Live! congress and fair, to take place from 30th November to 1st December at the IFEMA fairground in Madrid. This event is the national platform of reference within the railway transport that has broad support from the entire sector, and which will be included as one of the main contributions of the industry to the European Year of Rail to be held throughout this year.
