Speaking at the opening of the 11th Transport Ministers meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu evaluated the developments in the road, railway, maritime and aviation sectors. Karaismailoğlu said, “I hope that applications such as PCR test application and transfer obligation, which are also applied in some of the ECO countries, are reviewed. "Instead of these restrictive and additional costly measures, international trade should be paved with measures such as digitization of transport documents," he said.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu attended the opening of the 11th Transport Ministers meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) online. Karaismailoğlu stated that the most important issue discussed in the context of the ECO Transit Transport Framework Agreement for years is the wages, quotas and driver visas received from road transport, and said, “We have always advocated that the fees taken from transportation should be abolished, both in our bilateral meetings and in all multilateral platforms. Likewise, we believe that the quota application in bilateral and transit transportation should be abolished in order to make transportation more efficient and for regional development. In this context, we support all kinds of work on the liberalization of bilateral and transit transports.
VISAS TO DRIVER MUST BE FACILITATED
Reminding that in addition to these restrictions experienced in the sector and partially resolved, with the emergence of the epidemic, additional restrictions were made by all countries, Karaismailoğlu continued his speech as follows:
“Our country had to implement regulations affecting international transportation in order to protect public health at the beginning of the epidemic. It is important to maintain the supply chain uninterruptedly in order for the country's economies to survive and for the fight against covid-19 to continue. I hope that applications such as PCR test application and transfer obligation, which are currently applied in some of the ECO countries, are reviewed. I think that international trade should be paved with measures such as digitalization of transport documents instead of these restrictive and additional costly measures. I hope that the work on facilitating visas for drivers, carried out in coordination with the ECO and in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the member states, will be concluded in the coming period.”
“İSTANBUL-TEHRAN-ISLAMABAD HIGHWAY CORRIDOR” ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS IN HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION
Underlining that the start of transportation on the "Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad Highway Corridor" is the most important achievement in terms of road transportation in 2021, Karaismailoğlu said, "The first truck shipment in the Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad Highway Corridor departed from Pakistan on September 24, 2021. After the vehicles arrived in Istanbul, the corridor was announced to the public with a ceremony held at the Muratbey Customs Directorate. Return loads from our country were also successfully delivered to Pakistan. I wish the corridor to be beneficial for the countries of the region," he said.
“IRON” CORRIDORS THAT HAVE GAINED IMPORTANCE WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE WEALTH OF OUR REGION
Touching on railway transportation in his speech, Minister of Transport Karaismailoğlu made the following assessments:
“As Turkey, we have made significant investments in railways in recent years, and we continue to do so. Our big investments such as high-speed train lines, Marmaray, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars are projects that serve not only Turkey but also the ECO region and intercontinental connectivity. I am pleased to follow that important investments are made in railways in other ECO countries, and I believe that railway corridors, which are gaining importance, will contribute to the prosperity of our region. As one of the most important achievements of 2021 in railways, we put the 'Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad Freight Train' back into operation. As you know, the 'Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad Freight Train' was put into operation in 2009, but the services were stopped because the line was not competitive. Our train, which departed from Islamabad on December 21, 2021, completed its approximately 6 thousand kilometer course in 13 days. We announced to the public that the train was put into operation again with the ceremony we held at Ankara Train Station. Studies are continuing to increase the variety of cargo, shorten the transportation times and to carry cargo between them for the train, which has started to be operated again with the works of our railway administrations. I wish the line to be beneficial for all countries in the region.”
TURKEY IS A SHIPPING COUNTRY
Pointing out that the main agenda item of the works carried out under the responsibility of the ECO in the maritime field is to strengthen the transportation infrastructure of the member countries that do not have a sea connection, Karaismailoğlu said that today only three of the 10 ECO member countries (Turkey, Iran, Pakistan) have coasts on the open seas. Expressing that Turkey is a maritime country with 194 port facilities open to international traffic and almost all of which are operated by the private sector, Karaismailoğlu said, “Our country, which plays an important role in transportation between China and Europe, offers great opportunities to strengthen the logistics connections of non-coastal member countries. We are pleased to support ECO countries with our entire logistics infrastructure, especially at our Trabzon and Mersin ports. The 6th "Meeting of the Heads of Maritime Administrations", where our cooperation in the field of maritime was discussed, was held online last April under the presidency of Turkmenistan. I believe that this platform, where all our cooperation in the maritime field is handled at a high level, should meet regularly.”
WITH MEASURES AND SUPPORT, WE TAKE STEPS TO GET THE AVIATION INDUSTRY OVER WITH MINIMUM DAMAGES
Emphasizing that the sector most affected by the epidemic worldwide is "aviation", Karaismailoğlu said that today many airline companies in the world are on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of the cessation of flights. Karaismailoğlu said, "We have taken steps to help the aviation industry overcome this process with the least damage with the measures and supports we have taken since the first day," said Karaismailoğlu. . I would like to emphasize that, as Turkey, we are ready to share experience and cooperate within the scope of the ECO in the efforts for the recovery of the aviation industry. In this context, the 'Civil Aviation Working Group 1st Meeting' was held in 2020 under the presidency of our country. I would like to thank Iran for organizing the second meeting this year. After the first meeting, we stated that we could provide training in different fields of civil aviation to demanding countries. In this context, officials from the civil aviation administration of Uzbekistan requested training from our country in the fields of 'Unmanned Aerial Vehicles', 'Certification of Airports', 'Certification of Flight Operations and Surveillance and Control of Flight Operations'. Our friends are in contact on this matter. Again, if there is a demand for education from other countries, we are ready to meet these demands as much as we can.”
Reminding that the activity calendar for 32 was determined with the 2022nd Meeting of the ECO Regional Planning Council held last week, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu said, “We have a lot of work ahead of us. Hopefully, we will implement result-oriented studies with concrete outputs for our region.”
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