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Exclusive Interview-Binali Yıldırım
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33
by the Black Sea Memorandum of
Understanding signed in 2000.
Foreign flagged ships calling our
ports are subject to Port State Control
inspections accordingly with mentioned
MOU procedures and with the Port State
Control Inspections issued in 2006.
In 2003, 506 foreign-flagged vessels
checking our ports in 2012, an increase
of about 5 times the total foreign-flagged
ships inspected in 2308.
SeaNews: Since December
2011, the Ministry of Maritime
Transport merged with Under
secretariat of Maritime and
from then on, serving under the
Ministry of Transport, Mari-
time and Communications.
How do you see the new era
compared to past?
Binali Yıldırım: As you have point-
ed out;
since the 1st of November
2011, which is the reorganiza-
tion date of Transport, Maritime and
Communications Ministry, almost one
and a half-year period passed and, 6
General Directorates which my Ministry
consists, 4 directly-2 partially deals with
maritime issues; began to work with a
new enthusiasm and excitement of pro-
ducing new projects. As it is a widely
accepted truth, maritime sector is an
important piece of the whole transpor-
tation sector. Hence, the merge further
strengthened ties of maritime sector
within the other transportation sectors
in the Ministry. Taking the advantages
of being a Ministry, serving to the sector
will be provided more quickly and more
efficiently.
Colleagues intensively reviewing all
maritime legislation, re-assessing condi-
tions accordingly with current situations
and needs of the country in accordance
with international environment. As a
result, we have the Ministry of Maritime
Affairs of Turkey now. We raised the
level of our maritime administration
from Under secretariat to Ministry. In
doing so, some criticized us, but gather-
ing all these units under same roof, is the
most basic requirement of an integrated
transportation. As Turkey will grow in
line with the 2023 targets, transportation
sector certainly will take the lead in this
growth.
SeaNews: What has been done
for the Turkish shipbuilding
sector which experience dif-
ficulties because of the excess
supply of vessels in the world
fleet and also due to fierce
competition with Far Eastern
shipyards deteriorated by high
shipbuilding costs?
Binali Yıldırım:
Unfortunately we
live in a serious crisis in the world econ-
omy since 2009. Although our coun-
try’s economy has not been effected as
much as others such as United States,
European countries and the world’s
major economies; our maritime sector
was not able to avoid this crisis due to its
natural characteristics.
Low freight rates, imbalance between
supply and demand of ships, falling ship
prices, increasing ship supply due to
shipbuilding orders that were peaked
during the 2004-2008 period created
a pressure on our shipbuilding sector
which experiences difficulties in receiv-
ing new orders and continues to experi-
ence economic difficulties.
Resetting
rents
Our Government provides all possible
support in order to mitigate the difficul-
ties faced by the industry and to increase
it’s resistance. The latest example of this
is a law passed by Parliament last month,
with which rents paid by shipyards
and boat building installations indexed
to 1/1000 of their total revenues. This
means that almost rents are reset.
Credit
Guarantee
Fund (CGF)
A further support is the Credit
Guarantee Fund (CGF). CGS supports
the small and medium-sized enterprises
by providing guarantees to, make it pos-
sible to use bank loans to finance invest-
ments and operations.
With this application, so far;
Our Ministry provided Beneficiary
Certificate to
- 11 firms as the ship builder,
- 15 firms as ship management com-
pany,
- In total to 26 firms (for 33 ships)
Of 26 firms to which Beneficiary
Certificate issued, only;
- 10 companies applied to CGF for 19
ship investments;
- Total amount of credit requested by
10 firms is TL 274.2 million,
- Total TL 178.1 million of guarantee
provided by CGF to these 10 companies.
KGF application amended by
a Cabinet Decision published in the
Official Gazette dated 30.12.2012
2012/4095 s follows;
-In the Maritime business loans, the
grace period increased from 1 to 2 years
and term increased from 3 to 4 years.
- The grace period in the Maritime
investment loans increased from 3 to 4
years ,
-Applications term for guarantee has
been extended until 31.12.2015.
Investment
Incentives
Another support has been initiated in
order to increase investment and employ-
ment opportunities in some regions to
implement the tax and insurance pre-
mium incentives, providing free land
enforced by Law number 5084, which is
“Law for the Promotion of Investments
and Employment and Amendments to
Some Laws”. Law No. 5084, as well as
many other industries in our country, has
encouraged investment and employment
in the ship-building industry. That has
been beneficiary for those who provide
employment by investing in shipbuilding
sector. These benefits, in particular has
been in the form the allocation of free
land, support for insurance premium,
interest rate support, and of tax relief.
In summary, as of today, many ship-
yards in the country has benefited from
this incentive, they have been particular-
ly the shipyards in the Black Sea region,
as listed below:
1 Çamburnu Shipyard (Sürmene/
Trabzon)
2 Terme Shipyard (Terme / Samsun),
3 Three shipyards in Tekkeköy
(Tekkeköy / Samsun),
4 K.Ereğli Shipyard (K.Ereğli/
Zonguldak)
5 Iron Shipyard (K.Ereğli / Zonguldak)
6 İnebolu Shipyard (İnebolu /
Kastamonu).