Organized for the first time this year under the leadership of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and planned to become a tradition in the coming years, the “Turkey Maritime Summit” was held in Shipyard Istanbul as a hybrid event on 1, 2 and 3 July 2021. In the opening session, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu, Governor of Istanbul Ali Yerlikaya and Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Kitack Lim made opening speeches at the event, where all stakeholders in the maritime sector, especially the public, civil society, academia and business world, came together. came.
The main theme is the power and potential of the Blue Homeland.
At the Turkish Maritime Summit, which started with the Maritime and Cabotage Day celebrations, the current strength and potential of Mavi Vatan, areas promising high growth potential for the future in maritime and logistics, and the advantages that the industry will gain from this growth were discussed. In line with the vision of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the three-day summit brings together all the stakeholders of the maritime industry, from the public to the civil society, from the academy to the business world, while thousands of local and foreign participants, numerous sessions, roundtables, workshops, ideathons, experiential practices, enriched content and methodologies. had the opportunity to exchange information and develop relationships.
Experts in the field gave speeches
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu, Governor of Istanbul Ali Yerlikaya and Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Kitack Lim delivered speeches at the opening session on the first day of the summit. In the “Trade in Maritime” session, moderated by journalist Hakan Çelik, MSC Turkey CEO Hasan Piroğlu, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Trade Logistics Branch President Jan Hoffmann, TÜRKLİM Chairman of the Board Mehmet Hakan Genç, Chairman of the Board of Global Investment Holdings Mehmet Kutman and President of IMEAK Chamber of Shipping, TOBB Vice President Tamer Kıran discussed the latest developments in the sector from their own perspectives, taking a holistic approach to maritime trade. The participants conveyed the developments within the framework of "The impact of the pandemic on the maritime sector", "Turkey's position in the maritime sector" and "Steps to be taken for the growth of the sector's trade". Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde Prof. Dr. Atilla İncecik shared critical technological developments for the sector with his speech titled “Global Maritime Technology, Trends, Driving Forces and Challenges”. Dr. İlber Ortaylı talked about the role of the straits in maritime trade with his speech titled “History of the Turkish Straits” and the writer İskender Pala told the stories of the three pioneers of maritime history Çaka Bey, Piyale Pasha and Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha in his speech titled “Three Summits in Turkish Maritime”.
The new ecosystem of competition was discussed
Four sessions were held on the second day of the summit. In the first session titled “Maritime Route From Today to Tomorrow” moderated by Inbusiness Editor-in-Chief Hülya Güler, “Blue Homeland” was discussed in all its dimensions. In the session, Sanmar Deniz Deputy Chairman of the Board Ali Gürün, Botaş Deputy General Manager Talha Pamukçu, Güngen Denizcilik ve Ticaret A.Ş Board Member Mehmet Sait Güngen, Karadeniz Technical University Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Ersan Başar and AAB Maritime General Manager Ünal Baylan drew a broad perspective on the past, present and future of maritime. In the “Transformation Talks”, the concept of “transformation”, which has always been at the focal point of life, was evaluated with different dimensions together with the information society we live in. In the session, “Ecological Transformation of Maritime” interview was held with Şadan Kaptanoğlu, Chairman of the Deniz Temiz Association/TURMEPA Board of Directors.
Kanal Istanbul was discussed in all its details
At the "Kanal Istanbul Turkyolu" session, the Kanal Istanbul project was discussed in all its details. Marmara University Faculty Member and City Management Specialist Prof. Dr. In the session moderated by Recep Bozdoğan, the General Manager of Infrastructure Investments of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Dr. Yalçın Eyigün, TÜBA Principal Member, ITU Lecturer Prof. Dr. İzzet Öztürk and Türk P&I General Manager Ufuk Teker made scientific evaluations about the project. In the “Blue Homeland Strategy” session, the place and importance of environmental policies in maritime, energy supply security, the new ecosystem of competition and the consequences of these factors for the maritime industry were discussed. Piri Reis University Rector Prof. Dr. The session moderated by Oral Erdoğan, Naval Forces Commander Admiral Adnan Özbal, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yavuz Selim Kıran, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Selim Dursun, Deputy Minister of Environment and Urbanization Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Birpınar, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Dr. Alparslan Bayraktar and Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır.
Reflections of digitalization on the maritime industry
On the third day, three sessions were held. Yıldız Technical University Rector Prof. Dr. Tamer Yılmaz, in his speech titled "The Turbulence of Information", drew attention to the important changes experienced at every point regarding the production, use and transfer of information in today's world, while the Founder of TBA Group, Yvo Saanen, under the title of "Digital Age in Maritime", highlighted the developments in areas such as ship traffic, route control and inspection. explained technological systems. In the "Digitization in Maritime" session, the reflections of digitalization in the maritime sector were discussed from the perspective of the speakers. The session, moderated by journalist – writer Hakan Güldağ, was attended by Türk Loydu Chairman of the Board of Directors Cem Melikoğlu, HAVELSAN General Manager Dr. Mehmet Akif Nacar, Former Undersecretary of UAB V. Navis Consulting General Manager Dr. Özkan Poyraz, General Manager of Coastal Safety Durmuş Ünüvar and YILPORT Operations President Ian James attended.
Informative events were held
In addition to the sessions, many events and workshops were held at the summit. On the first day of the summit, at the end of the event, as part of the Maritime and Cabotage Day celebrations, a magnificent “Lantern Regiment” parade that started from Sarıyer and ended on Beşiktaş beach was held. After the Lantern Regiment, a light show was held at the tomb of Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha in Beşiktaş and on the beach. "Let's Know the Sea" and "Maritime Ties Workshop" were some of the workshop activities that attracted attention to increase the interest of children in maritime. In addition, those who want to experience maritime experience had the opportunity to experience maritime history with the tunnel equipped with 360-degree LEDs.
Speaking on the second day of the summit, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Selim Dursun talked about the strategic location of Mavi Vatan and explained the importance of Kanal Istanbul.
Deputy Minister of Environment and Urbanization Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Birpınar, on the other hand, emphasized that Kanal Istanbul is not a fantasy project, but a project to protect the health of the 20 million population living in Istanbul, in his speech at the summit, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Dr. Alparslan Bayraktar also said, "Canal Istanbul is an extremely important project for the world's energy security."
In his speech, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yavuz Selim Kıran said, “The Straits, in which the Montreux Convention is valid, have been expressed very clearly. Kanal Istanbul is out of this scope," he said.
Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology, also talked about the contributions of the National Technology Move to make Turkey even stronger in the seas.
The closing was carried out by Minister Karaismailoğlu.
On the last day of the summit, Minister Karaismailoğlu made a closing speech. Karaismailoğlu, in the session where he talked about Kanal Istanbul, stated that the summit, which brought together the sector stakeholders and which was extremely productive, will become a tradition and will continue to be held regularly every year during the Cabotage Festival.
Pointing out that Shipyard Istanbul, where the summit took place, is a very valuable project for the city and that it will add value to Istanbul by being completed next year, Minister Karaismailoğlu said, “The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure has to be prepared for developing needs. It is necessary to be prepared not only for the seas, but also for land, air and railway. Because mobility and technology are developing. For this reason, you have to have 5-10 year master plans. In recent years, very large projects have been realized in our country. Their plans were made, the needs were looked at, and important work was done. Great emphasis was placed on the highway. The deficiencies in the airline were completed and the 'airline was the way of the people'. Serious investments were also made in the rail system. Maritime is also very important. Because the backbone of exports is shipping,” he said.
“Canal Istanbul will finance itself in 12 years”
Emphasizing that Kanal Istanbul is one of the vision projects of the world, Karaismailoğlu stated that Turkey, which aims to become the world's top 10 economy, is in a position to shape global trade with the transportation and infrastructure projects it has already realized. Noting that canal projects such as Kanal Istanbul are carried out in many parts of the world, especially in Eastern Europe, channel projects arising from need have been implemented, Karaismailoğlu said, “Canals are being built to accelerate logistics corridors. 90% of world trade is spent at sea. For this reason, you have to give importance to maritime trade and offer alternatives. Five routes were determined for the Kanal Istanbul project and the most suitable one was chosen among them. An environmentally friendly project was designed. After the Kanal Istanbul investment, serious income will be obtained from the ship crossings. In addition, there will be important port investments in the Black Sea. We think that the project will be self-financing in 12 years.”
“Canal Istanbul has nothing to do with the earthquake”
Underlining that Kanal Istanbul did not trigger an earthquake, Karaismailoğlu explained that the depth of the project is 20.75 meters, and said, “The depth of the metro work in Vezneciler is 60 meters, then let's not do the metro either. Experts and scientists have already put the point on this issue. The Kanal Istanbul project does not have any negative aspects regarding this issue. Every question about Kanal Istanbul has an answer. Because from the very beginning of the project, experts from all sectors related to this subject have done in-depth studies in every aspect. Also, it does not pose a problem for our defense or for Montreux.”
“We must be prepared for 2030”
Pointing out that it is necessary to follow the movements in the world regarding maritime, Karaismailoğlu said, “There is an annual trade volume of 710 billion dollars from China to Europe in the world. Our country is in the center of Eurasia, between China and Europe. We need to turn the advantages of our geographical location into an opportunity and become a logistics planner.”
Reminding that today the trade volume in the world is 12 billion tons and 1.7 billion tons of this is circulating in the Black Sea, Minister Karaismailoğlu used the following statements:
“In 2030, these numbers are expected to double. In other words, it is predicted that it will increase to 25 billion tons in the world and 3.5 billion tons in the Black Sea. Currently, the only exit of the Black Sea trade lake is the Bosphorus. Even today, there are serious problems and dangers we experience here. That's why we need to be prepared for 2030."
The summit ended after Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu made his assessments about the sector, the summit and Kanal Istanbul.
Be the first to comment