A symposium on Transport Competition and Law, which I attended, was held at Dokuz Eylül University.

 In the same week as my port visit I got an invitation to visit the symposium about Transport Competition and Law, which would be hosted at Dokuz Eylül’s own Maritime Faculty. Upon arrival I wasn’t really expecting the turnout that actually was present. Later on I understood why there was such a big turnout.

To sketch the situation, before entering the building I was first greeted by some mean looking bodyguards and was scanned by police to check whether my bag contained on bombs or something like that. It turned that the seminar was also visited by two Turkish ministers who also had one speech each about the current state of the transport sector. Looking back at it, it’s just normal to have this kind of security when two ministers are attending the symposium. After the ministers left the room was only half as full as before, because a lot of press left, as well as the bodyguards and several other important businessmen.

The symposium hosted several seminars, ranging from Transport Competition to Transport Law as well as a seminar on Maritime Transport. I did not attend to all of the symposium, as some would not really contribute to my research.

However, I found the first seminar, with the two ministers, quite interesting as it gave a general view of the Turkish transport sector as well as the current state of the Turkish logistics. With the experts telling the attending Turkish transport companies to go from push to pull strategies, left me with a decent impression of the current state of the Turkish (transport) logistics. They aren’t very well developed as a logistics country, but comparing it too other countries, they are improving very fast. And at least on an academic level, they are willing to learn and improve.

Regards,
Tim