A major investment move in logistics: Investments planned for Turkey to become regional a logistics base by 2053 with the Turkey Logistics Master Plan
December 25th 2019The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Mehmet Cahit Turhan, said at a press conference in Ankara today; "We aim for Turkey to become a regional logistics base in global trade. In order to determine the short, medium and long term critical investment areas which will provide us with a competitive advantage, we have examined the field data in our Ministry's records, received the opinions of the relevant stakeholders and examined examples of good practices in the world.”
The Turkey Logistics Master Plan focuses primarily on three themes: Transit trade revenues, export-oriented infrastructure improvements and productivity growth. In transit trade revenues, the target is to draw the load demand on transport routes in the region we are in, mainly to Turkey. International trade routes on an east-west axis, such as the “One Belt One Road ” (OBOR) project launched by China, the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) and the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA), as well as increased commercial activity between Africa and Russia in the north-south axis in recent years, indicate the high level of potential for Turkey.
The second theme is the creation of a logistics infrastructure that will support Turkey's 2053 target of USD 1 trillion in annual exports. To this end, the aim is set out to increase the number of provinces that export more than USD1 billion, which are generally concentrated in the west of Turkey, from 17 in 2018 to 27 in 2035, and to 50 in 2053, and to use the eastern regions more efficiently. Investment plans such as railways, logistics centers and junction lines will reduce the cost of access to the east; trade is expected to increase most notably in those provinces which the transit load passes through.
The third theme is efficiency. Measures will be introduced to reduce logistics costs in foreign trade and in Turkey in order to provide a competitive advantage for Turkey in terms of exports and to enable its citizens to access more affordable products in the domestic market and to prioritize investments which can be realised quickly by analysing productivity losses. Under the 30-year plan, the railways will receive the largest share of investments, at 75 per cent of the total, while highways will be positioned as a complementary mode of freight transport.
The current logistics coordination board will take on a more executive role in order to implement the investments and activities which are prioritized with the contributions of the Turkey Wealth Fund, as planned, while supporting the coordination of the different organizations in Turkey’s logistics ecosystem around the same purpose to enable the implementation of the strategy.