Adil Karaismailoglu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, said, “While we were building our comfortable and safe roads that surround Turkey, we also strengthened our country’s ties with the world and gained a logistical claim. Today, we have declared our dominance over world trade routes.”
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu met with the Board of Directors of the International Transporters Association at the meeting. Minister Karaismailoglu made a speech at the meeting held at the association building in Besiktas.
Drawing attention to Turkey’s geostrategic and geopolitical location, Minister Karaismailoglu said, “Our country is a natural bridge in the east-west corridor between Asia and Europe, as well as in the middle of the north-south corridors stretching from the Caucasus countries and Russia to Africa. With a 4-hour flight, we are at the center of 67 countries, where 1 billion 650 million people live, with a gross national product of $38 trillion and a trade volume of $7 trillion 45 billion. Only the annual trade volume between China and the European Union is around $700 billion, and our country is the most important transit route of this huge volume.”
“WE DECLARED OUR DOMINANCE ON WORLD TRADE ROADS”
“The road transport sector, which has an important share in the execution of import and export activities, has always been a driving force that constitutes the backbone of our economy,” Minister Karaismailoglu said. “In addition to being an economic activity in itself, road transport, which directly affects all other sectors, touches our 84 million people, from the manufacturer to the exporter, from the sole truck owner to the fleet owner, from tire supplier to spare part manufacturer, restaurant owner. While constructing our comfortable and safe roads that surround Turkey, we also strengthened our country’s ties with the world and gained a logistical claim. Today, we have declared our dominance over the world trade routes.”
“WE EXTENDED OUR DIVIDED ROAD NETWORK TO 28,339 KM”
Adil Karaismailoglu said, “I wholeheartedly believe that our investments in highways will form the most important pillar in our path to becoming one of the largest economies in the world. In 19 years, we have invested over ₺1 trillion 119 billion in our country’s transportation and communication infrastructure, and we spent ₺689.2 billion, or 62% of this, on the development of our highways. Thanks to our investments, we have largely solved infrastructure and superstructure problems in both east-west corridors and north-south axes. We increased our divided road network, which was 6,101 kilometers long before 2003, to 28,339 kilometers. We have increased our highway length to 3,532 kilometers. We will reach 8,187 kilometers of highway network in 2035, with 3,767 kilometers to be built with our 2023 and beyond goals.”
“IT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST READY SECTORS IN THE PROCESS OF CANDIDACY TO THE EU”
Minister Karaismailoglu said, “We have fully integrated our industry into the international transportation system.” He added saying, “Following our country’s EU membership process and the developments in the world, we have implemented new regulations that determine the conditions for entry to the road transport market and the profession, in line with the European Union legislation, and based on institutionalization. We have achieved 95% compliance with EU legislation in terms of content. Thus, road transport has become one of the readiest sectors in the EU candidacy process.”
“WHEN LIFE STOPPED DURING THE PANDEMIC, TRANSPORTATION NEVER STOPPED”
Stating that there was a contraction in the world economy during the coronavirus process, Karaismailoglu said, “The area affected by the contraction was undoubtedly the transportation sector. In this difficult period, we supported all our transporters with the regulations we have implemented as the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. While life stopped during the pandemic process, transportation never stopped. While the container crisis was going on all over the world, our country continued to increase its exports with its strong road sector. Even in these difficult days, our international road transport is on a growing trend. There was a 16% increase in the number of vehicles authorized for international transportation. There is a 20% increase in our international export shipments by road.” After the speech, the meeting continued as closed to the press.
Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz