06.01.2022 İstanbul
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the Assembly meeting of the Maritime Chamber of Commerce in Istanbul and Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean, Black Sea Regions (IMEAK). The meeting focused on the current state of the sector and its challenges.
“I am happy to meet
with my fellow sailors after a long time. I'll try to relay to you some of the
recent issues. I want to hear from you. As TOBB, we did not leave our members
alone during this period. We do our best to solve the problems of the sector.
We follow every problem very closely. We are seeking for solutions on behalf
our government. We were notified of 200 problems in a 6-month period. I want
you to know that we do our part in this.”
“Shipping is our must,”
he said. “No matter how much you produce, it doesn't matter if you can't get
it to the customer. You are the most important step in the world economy. We
foresaw that we would experience the difficulties of this process during this
period when supply chains are deteriorating. Everyone was aware of how
important transportation was in this process. Here's our main advantage. We are
bordering the European market. That's reflected in the numbers. We had huge
problems with container and freight prices. We will overcome this with the
increasing volume of trade in the coming period. As our exports and imports
increase, we understand your value better. We have set a historical record for
supplying, producing and bringing goods to market. That's our mission.”
TOBB Vice President and
Chairman of IMEAK Chamber of Commerce Tamer Kıran said that global sea trade,
which contracted by 3.4% on a ton basis in 2020, reached 11 billion 964 million
tons in 2021 with 3.7% growth per ton, above the value of 2019.
Stating that they are
trying to find solutions to the problems of the members, Kıran said, “We have
undertaken many efforts to support our sectors. During the second year of the
Covid-19 pandemic, we also worked hard, communicated the problems and solution
proposals from our professional committees and members to the relevant
institutions and organizations, and followed them up. For myself, when I kept a
tally of last year; I participated in a total of 456 activities, including 70
related to TOBB, in one year including Maritime Chamber of Commerce and TOBB
meetings, PRÜ Board of Trustees, TÜDEV Board of Directors meetings and other
related meetings, visits, receptions, workshops, panels and conferences.