FIDIC played a prominent role in the International Transport Forum's Annual Summit 2026 in Leipzig last week, signing a formal Letter of Intent with the ITF and co-hosting an official side event. The federation also contributed to several high-level sessions on transport infrastructure planning, finance and delivery.
FIDIC and ITF Formalise Collaboration
On 6 May, FIDIC and the International Transport Forum signed a Letter of Intent, formalising the two organisations' intention to work together on transport infrastructure policy and delivery.
The partnership reflects a shared commitment to strengthening the link between transport policy ambition and infrastructure delivery capacity, with a focus on advancing resilient, bankable and deliverable transport systems through knowledge exchange, capacity building and policy dialogue across both organisations' networks.
ITF serves as the OECD's intergovernmental think tank for transport policy, covering all modes of transport across 72 member countries. FIDIC represents over one million engineerging professionals and 40,000 firms across 100 countries.
ITF Secretary General Young Tae Kim welcomed the agreement: "Transport policy is only as effective as the infrastructure that delivers it. This partnership with FIDIC will bring together two organisations with complementary roles, and we look forward to developing evidence-based transport policies that improve people's lives."
Signing Ceremony | © ITF – International Transport Forum
FIDIC President Addresses Ministerial Roundtable
At a closed ministerial roundtable attended by ministers and senior government representatives from across the world, FIDIC President Alfredo Ingletti addressed the conditions needed to deliver on long-term transport vision.
Alfredo Ingletti at Ministerial Roundtable | © ITF – International Transport Forum
Ingletti said: "Vision-led infrastructure planning is only effective when it is matched by strong delivery capacity: turning ambition into bankable and deliverable projects requires robust governance, solid project preparation, structured collaboration, and procurement and contracting models focused on long-term value rather than short-term cost."
His remarks reflected a central theme of FIDIC's engagement at the summit: that transport strategies must translate into credible, investable and deliverable project pipelines and that the quality of project preparation, procurement and contracting frameworks is decisive in determining whether they do.
Side Event: Delivering Bankable Transport Infrastructure in Uncertain Times
On 7 May, FIDIC and the Inter-American Development Bank co-hosted an official side event, bringing together transport divisions from the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank and IDB, alongside the Brazilian Ministry of Transport and FIDIC leadership, to discuss the delivery of bankable transport infrastructure in the current economic climate.
Side Event | © ITF – International Transport Forum
The session was moderated by Basma Eissa, FIDIC Head of Policy, ESG and Sustainability, who had also participated in a closed-door roundtable on the Plan to Accelerate Implementation of Resilient and Adaptive Transport Infrastructure.
FIDIC CEO Susanna Zammataro said the discussion demonstrated the value of bringing these actors together: "These are the conversations that move the needle."
The discussion centred on the upstream determinants of bankability project preparation, procurement design and risk allocation and on the role of multilateral development banks not only as financiers but as conveners, standard-setters and capacity builders.
FIDIC CEO Speaks at Smart Finance Panel
Susanna Zammataro took part in the panel session Smart Finance: De-risking to Unlock Private Capital on 7 May, setting out FIDIC's perspective on where infrastructure risk originates and how it can most effectively be addressed.
Susanna Zammataro at Smart Finance panel | © ITF – International Transport Forum
Zammataro argued that projects frequently fail to meet investor expectations, not because of a shortage of capital, but because of weak project fundamentals, insufficient preparation, poor risk allocation in contracts, and procurement focused on the lowest cost rather than long-term value. She said these factors generate the uncertainty and delays that investors ultimately price in, and that the question of how to finance infrastructure cannot be separated from the question of how to design infrastructure that is financeable from the outset.
"Too often we try to de-risk projects at the financing stage, when in reality risk has already been built into the project upstream," she said.
She called for a shift from individual good practice to systemic change: "We don't need more pilot projects, we need systems that make good projects repeatable and scalable."
FIDIC's participation in the ITF Summit 2026 reflects its broader strategic commitment to advancing quality infrastructure delivery through stronger project preparation frameworks, procurement reform and capacity building and to working with international partners to translate transport ambition into bankable, deliverable projects.
