At the General Assembly, which started after the speech of Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu, the agenda to make the Middle Corridor more effective and efficient was evaluated.
In the General Assembly, TCDD Tasimacilik A.Ş. General Manager Hasan Pezük, in his speech, expressed his regret over the war in Ukraine, which affected a large geography, especially Europe and Asia, with its results, and expressed his wish for the war to end as soon as possible.
“World trade is expected to reach 95 billion tons.”
In his speech, Pezük stated that world trade, which was 2020 billion tons in 12, is expected to reach 2030 billion tons in 25 and 2050 billion tons in 95, that international trade has been reshaped as a result of globalization, and that the concepts of speed, cost, reliability, quality and flexibility are at the forefront of all supply and distribution processes. He said that one of the critical factors affecting the competitiveness of enterprises in international trade, where intense competition is experienced, is an effective transportation and logistics system.
He also stated that in order to ensure a sustainable increase in transportation in the Middle Corridor, it is imperative to find solutions to the problems in the railway transportation and logistics chain with a holistic approach, to develop interregional cooperation, and at this point, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Association has important duties.
Pezük said, “Our countries and railway administrations should work together and overcome the bottlenecks and disruptions that restrict transportation in the Middle Corridor, where transportation has started to be carried out at an average distance of 11 thousand kilometers. Thus, the Middle Corridor will be one of the most important and permanent links of world trade. It is pleasing that our countries, which for more than two thousand years have been a bridge between East and West for the spread of science, culture and ideas, are working together to develop and diversify the Middle Corridor, which offers opportunities for economic and cultural cooperation. The success of the Middle Corridor will increase depending on the continuation of the positive dynamics we have created so far and our concerted efforts to create favorable conditions for our customers.”
In addition, Pezuk said that all kinds of cooperation between the countries forming the Middle Corridor and the countries of the region will develop when success is achieved all together, and that it will contribute to the integration of countries into the global economy.
“First of all, infrastructure problems must be solved and modernization of railway lines must be ensured.”
Continuing his speech, Pezuk emphasized that in order to increase the transport capacity and speed in the Middle Corridor, the infrastructure problems should be eliminated first and stated that studies are being carried out for the modernization of the existing railway lines within the borders of our country and the construction of additional new lines.
Stating that freight trains have started to pass through Marmaray since 2020, Pezük said, “Thanks to the Marmaray and BTK Railway Line, an uninterrupted railway connection between China and Europe has been provided. In our country, many projects have been planned for the BTK Railway Line and the Middle Corridor, which will increase and complement the transports here, and some of them have been implemented so far. In this context, a logistics center was built on an area of 400 thousand square meters in Kars for the purpose of handling, loading and unloading and customs clearance of incoming and outgoing cargo from the Middle Corridor and BTK Railway Line. As a result of the uniformization of the transport documents in freight transport and the simplified transportation permit we received from our Customs Administration, the border crossing procedures of approximately 50 container trains are completed in 5 to 7 minutes with electronic integration. Personnel, locomotives and wagons were planned and allocated in this line section in order to fully use the existing capacity on the BTK Railway line, to shorten the load carrying times and to prevent load waiting. In the next period, we will increase all kinds of support for increasing the carrying capacity.' he said.
While evaluating 2021 at the General Assembly, the targets for 2022 were discussed.
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