IRU - Speeches: Haydar Ozkan, BSEC-URTA Secretary General and UND Vice Chairman of Executive Board, Turkey

"The transport in the Black Sea region is suffering from several competitive disadvantages, which affect adversely not only transport operators but the national economies of the region as a whole."

by Haydar Ozkan
Secretary General, Union of Road Transport Associations in the BSEC Region (BSEC-URTA

REGIONAL COOPERATION BETWEEN ROAD TRANSPORT ASSOCIATIONS IN THE BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION REGION (BSEC)

In the fast moving world, the technology is changing our lifestyles and philosophy of life irreversibly. All these changes are forming once again our thoughts and action. Mankind is laying historic foundations of an incredible mechanism that produces continuous new information by analysing our existing knowledge base.

All of these developments are accelerating the flow of time. Information that will be gathered in the next 30 years will be equal to what was collected in the last 5000 years. Only about 50 years have passed since the invention of first computer that was big enough to fill almost a room. Today the micro-processor hidden even in the musical post cards that we are sending to our friends, is much more efficient and faster than that first computer.

In spite of big crowds, who love or hate it, the globalisation is gradually dominating every aspect of our lives. Now the borders are becoming transparent, the states are grouping to eliminate barriers before the flow of goods and services, our countries are rapproaching with every new formation of regional harmonization and cooperation processes. Experts are asserting that inter-regional efforts of cooperation will gain more importance when this global tendency will reach its mature stage. In other words, we are all moving towards or falling into a single global market.

Thanks to the technology, the sale channels are increasing in number and becoming more effective; old walls of protectionism are collapsing between countries one after the other; energy sources are being marketed today and bought for tomorrow; everybody is expecting drastic increases in production volume of goods and services with snow-ball impact.

All these do mean one single thing for us: every new day more goods will be carried than the previous day.

And many things will be done electronically in tomorrow's world with one clear exception: transportation.

Globalisation is making the world smaller to do business. Technological innovation is leading to establishment of new channels with the customers as well as increasing the quality of all the services in economic life.

The new global policies are favouring elimination of barriers before world trade, thus making the borders between countries more and more transparent.

Internet and subsequently electronic commerce have much to say in this big increase.

Similar to what happens in the Western Europe, the Business to Business Sales in the United States are increasing very fast.

The calculations denote that online sales will amount about 4800 billion $ only in the United States by the end of 2004.

There is another more astonishing fact that the world trade is increasing bigger than the world economy growth rate. In 2000, the world trade volume increased 12,5 % while the world economy went up as much as 4 %. In 2001, a more amazing thing happened. The world trade volume increased 2 % when the world economy shrinked by 0,5 %.

Within the above framework, it is quite natural that transportation becomes the core business for the world trade.

Confirming this, the statistics indicate that transportation volume also increases in parallel to the afore-mentioned developments.

For instance, the European logistics market was as big as 470 billion Euro in 2000 and is expected to reach the amount of 690 billion Euro by the end of 2005.

Only in European Union, there are 10 million people working in transportation sector and the total spendings on transport is about 1000 billion Euro as per year, which is more than 10 % of the total European Union GNP.

Until year 2010, it is anticipated that there will be 38 % increase in the freight volume and 24 % in the passenger number in the European Union.

As far as the transportation business is concerned the road transportation constitutes a very important mode for economy.

Between 1990-1998, freight carried by the road mode in the European Union grew by 19,40 %. In contrast to the general belief, the rail mode shrinked by 43,50 % over the same period.

However, it is also a clear fact that important investments are made and planned to be made globally on transportation networks, mainly on road transportation. Not to mention about big international transportation projects such as TRACECA or Nort/South Corridor, only for the transportation networks within the European Union, more than 30 billion Euro will be spent in the first decade of 21^st century.

A macro analysis discloses that the road hauliers in Western Europe are much more active and successful in enriching the scope and increasing the quality of their services with comparison to those in the Central and Eastern Europe.

Within the framework of these information and the rise of global market concept, Black Sea sits in the centre of fundamental international transport corridors, such as TRACECA and North-South Corridor. This is another indication of the very big role that Black Sea is expected to play in international transportation on the East-West direction that represents a transportation volume worth of 330-400 billion $ per year.

THE BLACK SEA

Black Sea region is blessed with many assets and strengths, which position it very well for the future:

The Heads of State or Government of 11 countries in the region (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine), meeting in Turkey signed the Istanbul Summit Declaration and adopted the Bosphorus Statement on 25 June 1992 giving birth to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.

After the collapse of Berlin wall, this was the first multilateral step to integrate the Black Sea area to the world economy, to enhance cooperation among its members and to convert this sea area into one of peace, stability and prosperity.

Since then; the BSEC turned its back to a troubled, often volatile past and began marching towards a promising future, where confrontation and isolation are out, cooperation and engagement are in.

From its emergence on 25 June 1992, the BSEC has witnessed the following major steps:

All these important and historic events mark completion of establishment and consolidation stages, thus ushering the result-oriented programs and projects stage for the BSEC.

From its birth, this initiative has been drawing attention of many other countries such as Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Israel, Poland, Slovakia and Tunisia, which are following the BSEC activities under observer status.

In this whole picture the transport sector has a crucial importance as one of the most strategic contributors to the integration process in the Black Sea.

The Transport Action Plan for the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, adopted at the Meeting of Ministers of Transport in Sochi on March 30, 2001 outlines clearly the activities to be undertaken in the transport domain.

In conclusion, it is right to say that the Black Sea region is blessed with many assets and strengths, which position it very well for the future.

We all recognise that, thanks to these strengths, the region has an enormous potential for growth in industry, tourism, agriculture, services and trade. The transport sector, which is one of the most strategic contributors to the BSEC integration process, stands to benefit greatly from this growth.

Today, the transport sector in the Black Sea region is suffering from several competitive disadvantages, which affect adversely not only transport operators but the national economies of the region as a whole. Unless these disadvantages are eliminated, the sector will not be able to capitalise on the opportunities and meet the challenges of the future.

It is a fact that the formation of BSEC Organization, regional efforts on the levels such as SECI, ECO, TRACECA as well as bilateral agreements between countries aiming at creation of problem free transport corridors are very important tools and initiatives to attain the ultimate goal of free and fast flow of goods in the region.

In this regard, it is right to highlight that the BSEC Ministers of Transport very recently undersigned the BSEC Memorandum of Understanding on Facilitation of the Road Transport of Goods in the BSEC Region in Kyiv on 5 March 2002.

As a whole, the disadvantages faced by the transport industry in the Black Sea region are fundamentally driven by the lack of adequate infrastructure and the presence of several institutional, regulatory and administrative barriers to transport. The list of most important barriers and problems that refers predominantly to the road transport industry in the region are laid out in the table below with corresponding solutions proposed:

PROBLEMS OF ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY IN THE BLACK SEA REGION

VISA PROBLEMS	Multiple visas of long duration for professional drivers Shorter time Streamlined documentation and less bureaucracy Reasonable cost The establishment of standardized BSEC region-wide visa formalities including the possibility of obtaining visas at borders
CUSTOMS DELAYS	Standardized and simplified procedures SafeTIR and less bureaucracy Combat corruption
HIGH AND UNREASONABLE ROAD CHARGES	Improve charging policies in line with the principles of cost-relatedness, non-discrimination and transparency
RESTRICTIVE QUOTA REGIMES	Progressively liberalizing and eliminating quota limitations for bilateral and transit transport
NEED TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF TRANSPORT	Encourage multi-modal and combined transport (road, sea, river, rail)
NEED TO ELIMINATE SUBSTANDARD SHIPPING	Enhance flag state implementation Strictly apply port state control procedures

It must be recalled that any penalty on transport is even a bigger penalty imposed on trade and social and economic development.

In this regard, transport related regional NGOs have a very crucial role to play in bringing solutions to the common problems. It is exactly in this spirit that a number of transport related regional NGOs have been established within the framework of BSEC, namely:

BSEC-URTA (Union of Road Transport Associations in the BSEC Region) is the newest member in the BSEC family of NGOs, aiming at strengthening cooperation among the international road transport associations in the BSEC Member States.

It is as a result of all such heavy problems and the need to find common solutions to common problems in the international road transport sector that 11 International Road Transport Associations from 11 BSEC countries decided to come together to search for common solutions to their common problems under the roof of the Union of Road Transport Associations in the BSEC Region: BSEC-URTA. The Union was officially founded in Antalya (Turkey) on 25 October 2001 on the occasion of BSEC Business Council's First International Transport Forum.

In fact this development was also a positive answer to the call in the BSEC documents, namely the BSEC Economic Agenda for 2000, for contribution of all actors in society from bottom to upwards to the 10 year long cooperation efforts among our governments in the BSEC region.

BSEC-URTA shares the goals of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation which aims to transform the Black Sea region, through mutual cooperation, into a region of peace, freedom, stability and prosperity. Therefore, BSEC-URTA aims to provide private sector contribution to the multilateral cooperation process underway on the level of Governments in the Black Sea since 1992.

Within this framework BSEC-URTA is committed to establish a close and permanent cooperation with the IRU so that its activities, in-depth global experience and extensive means and facilities can rightly be used in regional formulations that are elaborated by the BSEC Governments on regular meetings of their representatives within the BSEC structure.

BSEC-URTA tries to play a key role to coordinate efforts by and influence of its Member Associations towards promoting and safeguarding their common sectoral interests in the BSEC region, particularly. The Union also constitutes a common platform for its Member Associations to develop bilateral or multilateral cooperation projects. In this regard, there are already concrete good examples initiated by different groups of Member Associations such as joint development of a distant professional learning software, joint use of high technology vehicle tracking systems, common use of driver training facilities, joint development of new ro-ro lines.

Potential of the BSEC region, energy hidden inside the road transport industry and the sincere will of 11 countries to further cooperation on the basis of contribution by regional NGOs constitute the main motivation for the BSEC-URTA family to construct a global perspective, set higher goals to achieve and become truly pragmatic and result-oriented towards shared success but nothing else.

FRAMEWORK OF COOPERATION AMONG NATIONAL ROAD TRANSPORT ASSOCIATIONS IN THE BSEC REGION

According to BSEC Economic Agenda, the success of economic cooperation efforts in the Black Sea will largely depend on the involvement in the process of multilateral cooperation of more active networks from the Member States from business, political, academic and other groups.

The new global economy requires a multi-canal rapprochement between all corresponding networks of the countries concerned for a most healthy and fast integration of markets. Since today necessitates elimination of all barriers against movement of goods, there is a consensus among all decision makers and involved actors on national, regional and international scales that common solutions are needed to common problems of transport sector, road transport in particular. For this, the international road transport associations on country level are in need of rapprochement and direct dialogue.

In this connection, BSEC-URTA constitutes a private sector platform that provides the necessary direct feed back and channel of input from the sectoral representatives to the BSEC transport policies.

This does not only create a perfectionism in the new BSEC tools and strategies but also ensures problem-free implementation and follow up of such tailor made tools and strategies as soon as they are approved by the BSEC decision makers.

Under certain chapters of the BSEC Transport Action Plan, the country associations as non-profit sectoral representatives are encouraged to undertake joint responsibilities such as building and operating logistic centers.

Furthermore, the financial capabilities of the country associations can be brought together, especially, when they are backed by the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank to initiate and undertake responsibility in certain regional projects.

Constituting a channel of direct dialogue in the BSEC region, BSEC-URTA enables its member associations to attain a regional perspective over the bilateral problems. Ultimately, this leads to a synergy and facilitate coordinated actions for solution.

There is an increasing need for the international road transporters from the BSEC countries to see each other not only as a competitor but also a possible partner to make joint investments and work together for new opportunities that they cannot benefit alone.

The road transport associations are required to have the intellectual maturity to understand that there will always be new market opportunities for them to cooperate as long as the economic prosperity in the BSEC and neighbouring regions will increase.

The problems of the international road transport sector are rather based on mutuality in essence, and they can be solved most efficiently only through a multilateral forum of dialogue, cooperation and partnership like BSEC-URTA.

When the regional countries came together almost ten years ago, they were discussing how to create an area where persons, capital and goods would move freely, where initiatives for cooperation would come from down to upwards rather than vice versa, thus allowing roles for states as arranging the legal framework for such a cooperation area.

The Black Sea region as a whole represents a melting pot of civilisations, cultures, most skilled manpower, natural resources, and therefore investment and trade thereby.

By the end of cold war, the cooperation efforts immediately started in the region for establishment of peace and prosperity in the region with the power of reinforced economic ties among the countries of the region no matter which political pact they belonged to before the 1990s.

These efforts and globalisation helped re-direction of capital and commercial activities into this region immediately. As a result, a significant increase in transport operations was scored, spontaneously. In addition to such a positive political and economic climate, the region was also planned to be the nest for the most strategic international land transport corridors between East and West.

As concerns the heart of Black Sea region, there is a very successful implementation of inter modal transport. For instance, most of the Turkish exports are carried by trucks on Ro-Ro vessels to Ukraine and the Russian Federation, which represent the leading key players in the region.

However, there are also a number of countries at the hinterland of the Black Sea that lacks a coastline with it, such as Albania, Greece, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, most of these countries except Armenia have an access to maritime shipping either in Caspian or Mediterranean Seas.

Significant transport infrastructure investments are underway in most of the regional countries, e.g. the road investments in Albania, Greece and Bulgaria, or port investments in Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.

Because of its pivotal role between East and West as well as North and South, the coastal countries of Black Sea are all strategic players in two well-known international transport corridors in the region, namely the TRACECA Corridor and the North-South Corridor.

In spite of vast opportunities for development of transport networks and transportation in the region in general, there are important bottlenecks and difficulties faced by shippers and transporters in the region.

Most of these problems are crystal clear and common for all the countries in the region. However, it is hard to eliminate them due to the chaotic structure of transformation in the newly independent states of the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union, namely the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

At this stage, what is most needed is to support the BSEC Organisation that focuses all the governmental and non-governmental cooperation efforts in the region for more than last ten years.

In this regard, it is also important for the sectoral NGOs to take their place on a regional scale under the BSEC's umbrella and exert their efforts to bring common solutions to common problems, like it is done so by BINSA, BRASS and BSEC-URTA.

BSEC-URTA, representing the regional road transport industry, forms a very functional platform to channel the IRU's global knowledge and influence into regional policies; to find common solutions to the common sectoral problems in the BSEC region; to encourage its Member Associations build closer relationships, solidarity and active cooperation; to facilitate its Members to develop sectoral joint projects on regional level; to contribute to better image of its Member Associations in their respectful countries and that of the industry on regional level, in general.

This cooperation model created a very functional and influential synergy in the industry throughout BSEC region, which made BSEC-URTA one of the most welcomed and respected private sector representative for BSEC decision makers and organizations on all levels.

Today, nearly half of eleven BSEC countries are either member or future members of the European Union. The other half of the member countries are proceeding to finalize their transformation and having strengthened ties with each other as well as the EU.

These developments are also very indicative for the necessity of a macro level and inter-regional alignment and harmonisation between the BSEC and EU countries. Once started, such an interaction would also allow new countries to be part of same harmonisation process expanding this wave to the rest of Asia and Middle-East.

In this long perspective, it is extremely important to develop and reinforce an inter-regional interaction and cooperation in international road transport industry, which can play a fundamental role in building the better future of industry while the global single market continues its rise the fastest ever.