Aydın Erdemir, Toros Agri VP of Terminal Marketing and Sales, was elected as the Chairman at the 24th Ordinary General Assembly of the Port Operators Association of Turkey (TÜRKLİM), the most important and only non-governmental organisation in the Turkish ports industry, of which Toros is also among its founders.
With 69 members under it roof, TÜRKLİM aims to find solutions to the sectoral problems of port operators on a common platform and to bolster solidarity.
In his speech at the General Assembly regarding his new duty and the Turkish port sector, Erdemir said, “Our mission time coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Republic. With that in mind, we will work hard towards the goal of being 'a sailor nation, a sailor state' set by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. As the new administration, our priority will be to develop a port management model that is compatible with the European Green Deal, is scientific and innovation-based, supports global green transformation goals, and internalizes the circular economy”, further adding, “We want to establish the foundations of a port industry and the prerequisites of a green economy roadmap to become carbon-neutral by 2050. With the participation of our stakeholders, we will establish the institutional structures necessary to carry out decisive practices in synergy, protect the balance of the ecosystem and above all, recognise gender equality as an indispensable part of our business model. Turkey’s ports industry is one that boasts strong international connections, global partnerships, and stakeholder qualities and our wish is to make it further prosper around this business model. Creating the road maps, analysing the needs and impacts that will determine the capacity needs and legislative requirements jointly with our stakeholders, particularly the public administration will be among TÜRKLİM's imminent duties. In this respect, a very busy agenda and hard work await us.”uuju
“Our ports are likely to reach 1.2 billion tons of handling by 2050!”
Mentioning the negative effects of the pandemic on global trade and supply chains, Aydın Erdemir pointed to the fact that maritime transport has continued uninterruptedly while road, air, and rail transports were mostly interrupted due to pandemic restrictions. Stating that this situation also has shown how critical and indispensable the maritime transport is, Erdemir continued his words as follows: “Today, nearly 90 percent of the goods in world trade are transported by sea. The Turkish ports have also ensured the continuance of our foreign trade without any interruption owing to the extraordinary measures taken during the pandemic and particularly to the digital and technological applications that were successfully put into practice in a short time. Today, nearly 90 percent of the foreign trade goods in terms of tonnage and 60-65 percent in terms of value in our country are transported by sea.”
Turkey is an important regional centre for multinational companies and global trade with a strong historical and cultural heritage, its integration with the international system and its perspective to gain full membership to the EU, its state-of-the-art communication infrastructure, and the advantages of its geographic characteristics. We must transform our country into a regional centre in terms of production, distribution, and logistics. Tonnage handled in the last 20 years has grown 2.5 times in volume while container transportation and port business grow above the global growth rates. Our ports are expected to reach a handling figure of close to 520 million tonnes by the end of 2021. If this trend continues steadily, tonnage to be handled in 2050 is likely to reach 1.2 billion tonnes or even more.
In order to achieve our targets, it is of great importance to urgently create a road map and management model that will pave the way for the ports sector, allow the growth of existing ports, and enable the construction of new ones. As the only representative of the Turkish ports sector working for the public interest, our main goals are to continuously increase the competitiveness, employment, efficiency, innovation, capacity, and service quality of the Turkish port business in the globalisation process. As TÜRKLİM, we will continue to contribute to the development of port business and maritime tourism and to the creation of national economic policies, to create solutions, and to work constructively with all our stakeholders, especially with the public administration, by exploiting the regional and sectoral potential of our country.”