II. Local Aspect * Aerospace, Transport Services and Defence Industry in Turkey Turkey enjoys a privileged position at the crossroads among Europe, Caucasus, Middle East and Central Asia. As a result of being a regional logistics base, Turkey’s transportation sector partakes among principal sectors in terms of economic growth and employment. With the influence of economical development and the EU accession period, the modernization of transportation sector has been already kicked off through privatizations and foreign direct investments. There are several ongoing projects on especially infrastructure and many privatizations have been realized mostly through build-operatetransfer (BOT) contracts. Moreover, Transportation Master Plan Strategy Report has been recently prepared for the Turkish Ministry of Transportation, which encompasses numerous project proposals on infrastructure, traffic and management of transport modes. Turkish Transportation Sector Statistics 2006
2007
Railways Length of main lines (km)
8,697
8,697
Passenger traffic (m passenger-km)
5,277
5,553
Goods traffic (m tonne-km; incl private wagons)
11,242
12,108
753
843
78,783
80,383
154,540
171,405
Sea Passenger traffic (m person-miles; domestic) Goods loaded (.000 tonne; incl domestic, excl transit) Goods unloaded (.000 tonne; incl domestic, excl transit) Road Length of motorway (km) Length of state and provincial roads (km) Passenger cars (no.)
1,987
1,987
61.764
61,912
6,140,992
6,472,146
10,936,714
11,695,611
Passenger traffic (m person-km; domestic)
187,593
209,115
Goods carried (m tonne-km; domestic)
177,399
181,330
Air Domestic passengers (.000)
28,800
31,971
International passengers (.000)
32,884
38,382
1,347
1,547
Total road vehicles (no.)
Cargo handled (.000 tonne, incl domestic) Source: Turkish Ministry of Transportation * This section is prepared by DEİK 22
In order to realize a nostalgic dream, the revival of the historical Silk Road as a part of international transportation came into agenda in 2006. Turkey has a primary role as a natural bridge within the Silk Road project, which links the Asian economies with high shares in world trade and Europe, due to its strategic geographic location, its proximity to the international transport routes, its renovated transport infrastructure and strong road fleet. Road transport is the main means of freight and passenger transportation. The 43% of Turkey’s total export was carried by road in 2008 to 57 countries by 1453 road transportation companies operating in Turkey. The Turkish Government aims to modernize existing roads and launch new projects. The estimated cost for modernization and construction of the roads is 37 billion TL. Roads which will be modernized are; • Denizli-Antalya Motorway 135 km • Şanlıurfa-Habur Border Gate Motorway 400 km • İpsala-Malkara Motorway 54 km • İskenderun-Antakya-Cilvegözü Motorway 70 km • Havsa-Malkara Motorway 87 km • Gerede-Amasya-Erzincan-ErzurumAğrı-Gürbulak Border Gate Motorway 1300 km • Ankara-Samsun Motorway 400 km • Trabzon-Şanlıurfa Motorway 550 km • Urfa-Diyarbakır-Gürbulak Motorway 650 km • Ankara-Pozantı Motorway 316 km • Aydın-Denizli Motorway 182 km As a part of the project of Silk Road, construction of Black Sea Ring Highway, which has a total length of 7140 kilometers and crosses the borders of 12 Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) member countries, takes place among upcoming projects. To ease traffic jam in Istanbul, construction of a third Bosphorus bridge and a underwater tunnel is on the agenda. Bridges that span the İstanbul strait will be privatized as well. Turkey has a railway of 8,697 km owned by public institution, TCDD. However since most of the railways are old and inefficient, the Turkish government aims to modernize railways through various projects. Construction of Ankara-İstanbul, Ankara-Konya, Ankara-İzmir and İstanbul-Bulgaria highspeed lines are on the agenda.