Service Exporters Meet for the Logistics Sector

Strategy meetings for 10 sub-sectors within the Services Exporters Association are ongoing. The second meeting addressed the freight transportation and logistics sector. The sector showed strong interest in the meetings held. The meeting was attended by Emre Orhan Öztelli, Director General of the International Services Trade Directorate at the Ministry of Commerce, Ahmet Akbalık, Chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) Services Sector Council, Şahap Çak, Chairman of the HİB Freight Transportation and Logistics Services Committee, Çetin Nuhoğlu, Chairman of the Board of the International Freight Forwarders Association (UND), Salih Zeki Çakır, HİB Board Member and Chairman of the Chamber of Maritime Commerce Assembly, Yusuf Karakaş, Head of Logistics and Transportation Services Department, and Fatih Özer, HİB General Secretary, as well as leading representatives of the sector.

ISTANBUL (AA)

Emre Orhan Öztelli, Director General of International Services Trade at the Ministry of Commerce, made remarks. Stating that the sector had not benefited from many export support measures in the past, Öztelli said: "We are eliminating this problem and also working on special incentive mechanisms tailored to the sector's needs. Additionally, we will update the structure of logistics centers established previously, transforming them from just a building into a model that supports the entire logistics process." Emphasizing that freight transportation and logistics services are the service sector earning the most foreign currency after tourism, Öztelli stated that they are working intensively to solve problems faced by the growing sector in line with increasing trade volume, noting that the capacity increase of customs gates is lagging behind the sector's growth rate, and that they are aware of the difficulties this creates for the sector.

Sector Needs Will Be Better Identified

Ahmet Akbalık, Chairman of the TİM Services Sector Council, also made remarks. Akbalık stated that they have conducted detailed analyses of the education services, entertainment and cultural services, contracting and technical consultancy services, tourism and travel-related services, port operations and ground handling services, software and IT services, passenger transportation services, freight transportation and logistics services, and other business services sectors within HİB. Emphasizing that they have been working on highly detailed research for approximately 1 year, Akbalık said: "Through this research, we will reach conclusions regarding the current positions of all our sectors, our competitors' strategies, our target markets, and how we should position ourselves. In this way, we will better identify the needs of our sectors and draw a roadmap in line with a common objective."

"Logistics Increases Competitive Strength"

Akbalık, conveying that the logistics sector will have a leverage effect on Turkey's increasing goods exports, stated: "Now it is no longer enough to just produce and sell a product; when you integrate this process with good logistics, you create value and increase your competitive strength. Our objective is to remove obstacles facing the logistics sector, which has strategic importance for us, strengthen the sector, and thereby both increase service exports and make a positive contribution to goods exports." He emphasized the importance of the sector with these words.