Bilgehan Engin, President of the International Transportation and Logistics Service Providers Association (UTİKAD), made a presentation about the sector at UTİKAD's annual evaluation meeting and stated that they understand the awareness of exporters about the increase in freight prices and said, "Disruptions in the supply chain and increases in freight prices are the problem of the whole world. The same problems also apply to China and Germany, the two largest exporter countries in the world. As the process of industrialization develops and we export products with high added value, the competitiveness of exporters will increase."
In 2023, UTIKAD President focused on the developments in the sector, emphasizing the importance of logistics coordination activities, especially after the earthquake disaster that occurred on February 6, and highlighted the negative effects of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the sector. He also stated that he finds the measures taken to make the sector more resistant to geopolitical crises important.
Highlighting that the crisis that occurred when marine transportation companies stopped their crossings through the Suez Canal and changed their routes due to security concerns in the Red Sea increased freight costs and delivery times, Engin expressed that they will continue to share information on this issue.
Bilgehan Engin shared the data on the distribution of foreign trade according to different modes of transportation and revealed that in the January-November 2023 period, marine, road and air transportation accounted for 59.19%, 26.18% and 13.93% of foreign trade, respectively. Engin also added that in the same period, seaway accounted for 87.77% and airway 11.30% of foreign trade by weight. UTIKAD President Engin summarized the expectations of the sector under main titles as follows;
-To eliminate the problem of intermediate staff in the sector.
-Improving transit transportation through our country.
-To increase the investments in infrastructure in rail freight transportation.
-To improve visa procurement processes for drivers in the highway/road transportation
- Increasing the quotas for transit documents.
- Making efforts to address the insufficiency of drivers.
-Revitalization of competition in the maritime container transportation.
-Preparedness of the sector and public institutions for ICS2 Phase 3.
-Legislation that determines the rules of international freight transportation, especially the Regulation on Transportation Business Organizers, should be aligned with the sector.
-Provision of support and incentives to the transportation sector by the public administration within the framework of compliance with the European Green Deal.
-Regulating the application process for the Green Logistics Certificate.
- Regulation of taxes for the development of e-commerce.
- Preparing airports outside Istanbul for ETGB.
Engin emphasized the activities of Turgut Erkeskin, President of the Federation of International Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), in Türkiye, and highlighted the importance of efforts such as the digitalization of the Middle Corridor and the acceleration of border transitions. We would like to conduct the pilot application of our Freight Pay product, which we developed to shorten the time and reduce costs, especially in international small amount payments, in Türkiye in cooperation with FIATAUTIKAD."
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