JEDDAH – An international aviation conference at Jeddah Hilton has managed to facilitate around 130 agreements related to the sector between delegations from all around the world, it was announced here on Wednesday. These agreements, signed at the Air Services Negotiation Conference (ICAN 2012), include increasing flight exchange between ICAO member countries and forming partnerships to enhance the global civil aviation industry and help it play its role in economic development. Participants at the conference called for a reduction of taxes that aviation companies have to pay. Experts believed that even 1 percent development in the aviation sector could help provide 15 million job opportunities. The event was inaugurated by Prince Fahd Bin Abdullah, GACA President. Prince Fahd said the Arab region is an attractive zone for aviation investments due to its economic stability and also the large number population of around 350 million people. The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) organized the event in cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The agreements also include helping airports that are not functioning efficiently to increase their activities instead of becoming economic burdens. Prince Faisal Bin Turki, GACA's deputy president for international organization affairs and deputy supervisor of the conference, said: “The conference welcomed 500 people in the field of aviation from 62 countries. “The delegations signed 130 agreements in the past five days to boost cooperation in the aviation sector between different countries.” ICAO honored two delegations that managed to secure numerous key agreements. One was the Island delegation, which was able to sign 17 agreements within a few days, while the other was a woman from Mali representing her country and was able to sign 10 agreements. The fifth ICAN conference was hosted for the first time in Saudi Arabia. The conference aims to enhance cooperation between countries in the aviation sector and help increase the number of agreements between them, as well as encourage future growth, expansion opportunities, and increasing connectivity in the sector.
