Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu, emphasizing that Turkey's full membership process to the European Union, which he pursues with patience and determination, should be encouraged with a constructive approach, said: It is the continuation of our relations with mechanisms such as Dialogue. Our ATLAS Project has a special importance as it is the first study to cover all aspects of transportation legislation. The fact that the extremely comprehensive EU transportation acquis and our national legislation will be handled with transparency will accelerate our legal harmonization process.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu spoke at the opening of the Project for the Analysis of Turkey's Transport Legislation in the Process of Harmonization with the EU Acquis. Pointing out that the importance of transportation in the world has increased rapidly since the beginning of the 2000s with the effect of globalization and the impact of transportation on the national economies has become more evident, Karaismailoğlu continued his speech as follows;
“Especially the Kovid-19 outbreak enabled new developments such as digitalization in the field of transportation, reduction of logistics costs in production, green energy and zero emissions to the forefront of the agenda. These trends, as well as what happened during the epidemic, during which we struggled to get rid of the effects with the whole world, showed once again that the transportation and logistics sector is of vital importance. In this process, our country played an active role in the continuity of the supply chain in the world by maintaining its access to both its neighbors and countries in other parts of the world thanks to its strong transportation network. Our country, which is on its way to becoming a 'logistics superpower', has assumed important responsibilities in the Middle Corridor by transforming into a valuable and lucrative logistics and production base beyond being an alternative between Asia and Europe. In particular, the undeniable importance of Turkey in international trade, located in the Middle Corridor of the historical Silk Road stretching from China to London, was once again revealed. The logistics crisis experienced with the "The Even Given" Ship in the Suez Canal last year and the Russia-Ukraine war in the northern corridor of the line made the security of both lines questionable. In the light of these developments, as Turkey, we have become the logistics corridor of the world by continuing our projects without interruption.”
WE BUILD TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BY FIGHTING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE
Noting that it is not easy for Turkey to become a logistics power, Karaismailoğlu said, “We have built transportation and communication systems that will enrich our citizens and our nearby geography by struggling inside and outside. We rapidly completed infrastructure projects that received awards on a global scale, such as Marmaray, Osmangazi Bridge, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, high-speed train lines, Istanbul Airport, Camlica Tower, Eurasia Tunnel, 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and divided highway lines. Thanks to these investments, which play an important role in our economic development, our country has succeeded in surpassing European standards in many areas and even higher. Many of our infrastructure projects, such as the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, which is the project of the 'greates' in terms of its qualifications, and Tokat and Rize-Artvin Airports, which we have recently opened, draw attention as our symbolic works in different parts of our country.
WE SHAPE INVESTMENTS ACCORDING TO A PLANNED, REALISTIC AND STRONG VISION
Stating that their investments are planned in a way that will allow transit transportation between Asia and Europe to be made through Turkey's transportation networks, Karaismailoğlu said that this situation will strengthen the connectivity between east-west corridors as well as enabling the development of the European Union's Trans-European transportation networks. "We shape all these investments by adhering to a planned, realistic and determined vision," said Minister of Transport, Karaismailoğlu, and said, "In this direction, we have prepared the Transport and Logistics Master Plan, which we announced on April 5 and where we envisage an investment of 2053 billion euros until 190. As we always emphasize, we are working hard to prepare the future of Turkey with our plans and programs today. With the 2053 Transport and Logistics Master Plan, we have revealed the future 30-year plans of our country. As a requirement of this vision, we aim to increase the divided road network to 2053 thousand 38 kilometers, the railway line length to 60 thousand 28 kilometers, the number of ports to 590 and the number of airports to 255 by 61. Our 2053 Vision should not be considered as just an investment program. In this vision, we have determined mobility, logistics and digitalization as our main focus points, taking into account the developing trends in the world. Our holistic development-oriented vision that will connect our country to the world has many common denominators with the basic approaches of the European Union such as the European Green Agreement, the Paris Climate Agreement and the European Climate Law. In this direction, I would like to emphasize that we aim to increase the share of railways in our investments to 2023 percent in 60 and to increase the share of railways in freight transportation from 2053 percent to 5 percent in 22."
WE WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP PROJECTS TO ACCELERATE THE GREEN TRANSFORMATION
Emphasizing that the European Union, which also contributed to the financial dimension of the ATLAS Project, which was opened, has always been Turkey's most important commercial partner, Karaismailoğlu said, “The fact that our trade volume is approximately 2021 billion dollars in 180 is the clearest indicator of this. With the update of the Customs Union, our commercial relations with the EU will reach a deeper and more comprehensive dimension in the upcoming period. In addition to our commercial ties, I would like to state that as the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, we attach great importance to the Turkey-EU financial cooperation mechanism. For us, the EU Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) stands out with its financial contribution as well as its contribution to our experience of doing business and cooperation with EU institutions. One of the most important projects of the IPA II period. Halkalı-The Kapikule Railway Line Project is one of the biggest indicators of our determination in this direction. As the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, we will continue to develop projects that will accelerate the green transformation in the field of transportation during the IPA III period.
WE WILL CONTINUE TO SHUT UP AND PRODUCTION FOR A STRONG AND LEADING TURKEY
In line with the will of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Karaismailoğlu stated that they are ready and determined to take all necessary steps in the transportation and communication sectors in order to realize faster, more efficient and constructive cooperation with the EU compared to the past, and said, “Turkey is only a candidate country. and NATO Allies, but also as a country with deep-rooted and strong EU acquis, it has a strategic importance for the EU in many areas, especially in security, migration, supply chains and energy. In this direction, we believe that Turkey's full membership process to the European Union, which is pursued with patience and determination, by focusing on our common denominators and common core values, should be encouraged with a constructive approach. In this context, opening the Transport chapter to negotiations as soon as possible is the continuation of our relations with the projects supporting our cooperation and mechanisms such as the High Level Transport Dialogue. In line with this purpose, our Ministry has implemented many projects on legislative harmonization in order to strengthen technical cooperation. However, our ATLAS Project has a special importance as it is the first study to cover all aspects of transportation legislation. The fact that the extremely comprehensive EU transportation acquis and our national legislation will be handled with transparency will accelerate our legal harmonization process. The outputs of our project will guide the future vision of our Ministry and the work we will carry out with EU institutions. In addition, it will form a solid basis for the cooperation activities that we will carry out in the field of transportation with international financial institutions. The stronger our ties and cooperation in our region, the easier it will be for us to overcome problems. I would like to emphasize that Turkey is open to new projects that it will plan with the European Union from a strategic point of view and that it can implement with concrete outputs. We should not forget that improvements in transportation have an important place not only in reaching the goals of the transportation sector, but also in reaching the goals of societies in many areas. For this reason, the cooperation we will provide in the field of transportation will contribute to the improvement of the welfare level in many areas. We are working hard for the strong future of our Turkey, which is advancing with determined steps towards becoming the leading country of the developed world. We will continue to sweat and produce works for a strong and leading Turkey.”
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