Nepal is not only a landlocked country but also one with predominantly mountainous terrain—posing severe transportation and logistical challenges. There are no trains or waterways in the country to navigate through its mountainous regions. The only option is through roadways or via air.
Nepal is dominated by regional carriers due to its mountainous geography. Both passengers and cargo are ferried mostly in regional turboprop or jets that crisscross the nation.
The Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, is the only airport which connects to the world and is the hub for both international tourist arrivals as well as global cargo. Tourism is one of the main economic drivers of this picturesque country.
50 new aircraft by 2024
In its latest report on Nepal Air Traffic Analysis, Airbus said international passenger traffic in Nepal is expected to grow by 6.4 percent annually over the next 20 years (2014-34) due to increased travel demand in the Middle East, Europe, Australia, Japan and the US markets.
Airbus forecast that 50 new passenger aircraft will be required to serve the Nepal market by 2024. The report said international passenger traffic had tripled over the last 10 years. Air freight is also expected to grow but at slower pace.
In a study, World Bank pointed out the difficulties faced by landlocked developing countries to generate enough traffic to attract air freight services that are both frequent and competitively priced.
Permitting free competition, or “open skies,” for air cargo services can be significant but not sufficient if most cargo is transported as small shipments in passenger aircraft. Liberalizing passenger services to include fifth freedoms has been a greater challenge, especially in countries with a national carrier and limited passenger volumes.
Also important is expanding the role of consolidators, especially the large integrators such as UPS, and the international freight forwarders specializing in air cargo such as Kelly Logistics, as well as local forwarders with international connections.
Kathmandu Valley
Nepal’s terrain is the stumbling block for air freight growth and a report by Luisa Rodrigues of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states that e-commerce is confined only to the Kathmandu valley and certain urban areas.
Due to limited road access, resulting from: geography, underinvestment in logistics and transport infrastructure vulnerability to natural disasters, there are many challenges.
The trading volumes are below levels to attract main logistic players; Lack of reliable logistics services outside the Kathmandu ring road inhibits the completion of e-commerce transactions; Limited quality and reliability of postal services (inability to offer suitable e-commerce logistics) and lack of a proper postal addressing system makes last-mile delivery challenging. This is compounded by issues related to customs and border clearances.
UNCTAD states that Customs clearance is a key difficulty due to “convoluted and confusing customs laws”. And also pointed out there is hardly any regulation governing cross-border trade although 60 percent of Nepal foreign trade is with India.
History in the making
Nepal’s aviation history is not too old. In 1958, the Department of Civil Aviation was founded and in the same year, the then Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC), started scheduled services domestically and externally.
Lufthansa Boeing 707 was the first jet aircraft to land on the 6,600 feet runway at the TIA in 1967. Soon after, Thai International started its scheduled jet air services in 1968, and in 1972, the Nepali jet aircraft Boeing 727/100 owned by the RNAC made a debut landing at TIA.
In 1992, the Nepal government adopted the Liberal Aviation Policy, which led to an emergence of private sector in 
domestic air transport. Foreign carriers connecting Nepal recorded a double-digit growth of 11.82 percent in 2014.
This marks the 12th consecutive years of growth for international airlines since 2003.
Currently, 25 international airlines connect TIA to global destinations with the majority operating double daily flights from Nepal, thus, dominating the air space.
Rise and fall of domestic airlines
While international airlines passenger traffic has been phenomenal, domestic industry has been grappling with problems and challenges. Many private airlines like Necon Air, Cosmic Air, Nepal Airways, Everest Air and others have come and gone in the last 20 years. Raising questions about sustainability in domestic aviation.
The liberal aviation policy of the 90s opened the door for private players and ended the monopoly of Nepal Airlines Corporation. Carriers like Nepal Airways, Necon Air, Gorkha Air and Cosmic Air, started with a bang but couldn’t last long. Necon used to be the market leader before its sudden and unceremonious collapse.
Passenger movement has been on a constant decline since 2012, marking a departure from the robust growth rates since 2008 when airlines were flying high due to competitive airfares, road blockades & increased NGO/INGO staff movement after the peace process and a real estate boom.
Airlines saw a robust growth of 13 percent in 2008, jumping to 33 percent in 2009 as they cut fares amid stiff competition.
Although passenger movement increased 12.83 percent in 2010, its growth started dropping in 2011 and has been in the negative since 2012.
Cargo movement is limited due to economic conditions as well as infrastructural issues.
Tourism & infrastructure gap
Lack of aviation infrastructure continues to hurt Nepal’s tourist arrivals, which could hit a three-million mark if the country gets a new international airport and cuts down its over dependence on Kathmandu airport.
But things are now looking positive. The government considers development and investment in air transport in Nepal to be sustainable, since it generates revenues that supports tourism growth, which in turn plays an important role in creating employment and alleviating poverty.
The government and the Asian Development Bank believe that upgrading the international airport in Lumbini will allow international air access and would encourage inter-national airlines to begin direct or one-stop services to the airport from India and several other Asian countries, thereby, increase tourism and its economic impact in the Lumbini area.
The planned international airport in Pokhara, one of Nepal’s major tourist destinations, is also expected to boost tourist arrivals. In recent times, one of the important developments in the airport infrastructure has been the construction of the Second Inter-national Airport in Bara, Nijgadh.
A lot is happening on the ground, while the airlines of Nepal have to battle it out to get the best of services for the growing freight sector.
Nepal is going to embark on an accelerated economic growth for which transport development has been recognized as one of the core strategies.
The term ‘cloud’ is a word we have all heard before and is also the one technology that will set a trend in the cargo industry in the years to come.
The dawn of freight management software programs have truly given businesses an upper hand in controlling their supply chains and ensuring that shipping and receiving of freight were as efficient as possible, giving them the ability to provide customers with the best possible service.
Combining that with the benefits of cloud-based computing and data management can lead to a powerful business tool that provides for greater success and growth.
According to the latest survey from ‘Logistics Management Technology’ usage study, 18 percent of responding logistics professionals says they have already adopted cloud-based solutions, 37 percent are evaluating them, 13 percent actually do not see cloud-based solutions as an option, and another 26 percent say they not are sure of their company’s interest in cloud computing.
The report “Freight Management System Market by Solution (Freight Tracking & Monitoring, Cargo Routing & Scheduling, Security, EDI, TMS, Order Management), End-user (3PLs, Forwarders, Brokers, Shippers), Transportation Mode, and Region – Global Forecast to 2023,” predicts the cloud software market size to grow from US$10.76 billion in 2018 to $17.45 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.1% during the forecast period.
Some of the factors expected to drive the growth of the freight management system market include the need to reduce the transit time, desire for supply chain visibility, higher customer satisfaction, and the low cost of logistics, coupled with the advancements in freight security, safety, and transportation solutions; and rapid growth in communication technologies and IoT. However, congested trade routes and cross-border trade risks and environment concerns related to transportation and logistics may restrain the market growth.
Penetrating freight industry
Cloud-based applications continue to penetrate the supply chain management software space, as more operations are eager to embrace the advantages, which it maintains over traditional options.
In an email interview with Ahmad Abdel-Yaman, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, LogitaaS, Air Cargo Update discussed how its freight management software empowers freight forwarders with its cloud-based technology while integrating with shipping lines and airlines.
LogistaaS is the cloud software solution for medium and small-sized freight forwarders looking to improve their competitiveness through technology and streamline their day-to-day processes. It is user friendly, developed using the most advanced technologies, and integrated with many shipping lines and airlines.
“LogistaaS is a cloud software for shipping and logistics companies. We aim to provide our clients with a software solution that fits all their needs at a reasonable price. LogistaaS has modules for CRM, sales team management, pricing, shipment management, and invoice management. We also allow managers to have a deep insight on their business and answer thousands of questions with our reports.
“Our unique combination of features, pricing, customizability, and connectivity sets LogistaaS apart from other solutions and gives our customers more value for their money,” notes Ahmad.
Real time collaboration
LogitaaS uses resources, processes and technology to create solutions that deliver the right goods to the right place at the right time—as quickly and cost effectively as possible. Managers looking for technology to support those solutions may find that cloud computing offers some compelling options.
One of the oft-cited benefits includes cost reduction, as it is a significant factor in most supply chain managers’ decision to move to the cloud.
Outsourcing the maintenance and management of their IT infra-structure and workloads to off-premises data centers provides levels of compliance and high availability that could be costly to implement in their own environment.
Cloud hosting providers also tend to offer support from skilled teams that specialize in keeping IT infrastructure and systems running. Depending on your needs, cloud hosting can help you keep costs down by decreasing your IT spends.
“LogistaaS is built with the latest technologies and is designed to be simple to use, fast, and efficient. This translates into time and cost savings for our clients”.
LogitaaS has made it easier for employees, clients and businesses to collaborate with ease, thus, enhancing connections that are easy and less time-consuming. Collaboration with cloud computing is the same as instant messaging. However, it provides complete, specific tasks that take just hours instead of months to accomplish.
“LogistaaS gives clients many connectivity options, and with those, offers instant updates for any data sent to or received from external sources. Examples of this include instant transmission of financial data to accounting systems, instant updates on bookings and eAWBs, as well as any changes to internal data the user might be interested in,” Ahmad stressed.
Economies of scale
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), LogitaaS has many advantages – mainly economic ones. As the data and applications are hosted remotely, it does away with the cost and burden of hardware and software acquisition, and maintenance.
Essentially, LogitaaS offers many key advantages for SMEs including flexibility, scalability, easy accessibility, etc.
“By streamlining the company’s workflow, optimizing the use of its resources, and giving management full visibility of how things are progressing in their company, LogistaaS allows SME’s to run more efficiently and securely, which in turn allows them to be more competitive,” explains Ahmad.
LogistaaS also allows different clients to connect with each other internally; this allows them to share shipment data with each other with a simple button click, which gives them many benefits in terms of minimizing errors and time wasted in double data entry.
‘Digital fitness’
A PWC report on the future of the logistics industry predicts that “’digital fitness’ will be a prerequisite for success: The winners will be those that understand how to exploit a whole range of new technologies, from data analytics to automation and platform technologies.”
Freight forwarders are now looking at technology seriously and increasingly to improve operational efficiency, cut down on running costs, and offer the best service to clients.
“Many logistics companies are used to software being used for simple data entry, we prefer to think of LogistaaS as a more useful tool for employees and managers. All interactions on the system are carefully designed to minimize data entry and errors, and our task management module is highly useful for users to keep track of what needs to be done at any given point in time. Managers also get many tools to give them a big picture of how their business is running and allows them to see areas where they could optimize or improve performance,” says Ahmad.
LogistaaS has also a very flexible invoicing system that allows companies to issue invoices for shipments with their own customized templates, manage taxes, and keep track of payments in a simple and easy way.
Operating on a global scale
LogitaaS currently has clients in over 25 countries around the world.
“This means that we need to balance the customization needs of each country and client with the need for a standard and secure software for companies to work with. By maintaining constant communi-cation with our clients and staying updated with the latest industry standards, we feel that we manage to find that balance and cater to the needs of our clients globally,” Ahmad notes.
INTTRA and WinWebConnect are solution providers that facilitate the process of sending booking and eAWB data to carriers. LogistaaS is connected with both and thus allows us to give this flexibility to our clients and allow them to enter all their data in one place and transmit it to multiple parties as needed.
“We are connected with INTTRA, which provides our clients with the ability to send electronic booking requests to over 50 carriers and receive updates on those requests without leaving LogistaaS.”
LogitaaS also provides its clients a customized online portal, which they in turn can give to their customers. Customers then can see updates about their shipments and invoices, upload files, and submit inquiries to their freight forwarder directly from that portal.
As the race for increasing competitiveness using more advanced technology has become fierce, companies are now realizing that cutting-edge software is becoming more of a necessity and less luxury.
“We completely agree with this statement and think that the logistics field has not taken advantage of new technological advancements as much as other fields, which means that there is more room for improvement and growth for those who are willing to embrace development and look at things from a different perspective. We believe that companies that get the right formula can grow faster, more efficiently, and adapt more quickly to the needs of the market, and we believe that LogistaaS is right tool for this,” says Ahmad.
Ahmad concludes his interview with his opinion by saying, “As a major shipping hub in the region, the UAE always had a high traffic and is a pretty demanding market for any logistics company. It is for that reason that we have an office in Dubai, which allows us to have access to market data and to study the needs of our clients. We thus believe that we are the perfect partner for any logistics company in the UAE and that, as we continue to add more advanced features, our clients will also gain an increasing advantage over their competitors.”
Over 15 years ago, while the world was holding its breath monitoring the massive US-led military takeover of Iraq, a young engineer was silently crafting a vision and learning how to build a reliable express delivery service to Iraq—a country doomed by wars and conflicts for decades.
Eng. Majid Saidgul Babasheikh Barzanji’s efforts led to the inception of MATEEN Express, a vision-driven company founded on the new generation’s passion to innovate, make a difference and radically improve the lives of Iraqis who have long been suffering from geopolitical conflicts.
“We’re unique in the sense that we started MATEEN Express out of our own needs for systematic reliable logistics and supply chain in Iraq,” shares Barzanji, Chairman and Co-founder of MATEEN Express & Logistics, who is from Kurdistan, the oil-rich region in northern Iraq.
Barzanji holds the distinction as one of the very first to explore possibilities and potentials in the commercial air cargo and express services to Iraq when the country and the Iraqis needed it the most.
MATEEN Express laid the foundation for a completely new era in express delivery, supply chain, logistics integration and airfreight forwarding into Iraq, within Iraq and ex-Iraq. It was the first that offered air cargo and express deliveries for all commercial sectors such as computers, computer parts and mobile phones that were newly-introduced in the war-torn country, among many other life changing commodities.
Barzanji’s team commenced operations of MATEEN Express in 2003. By 2005, it quickly spun-off, simultaneously registering the company in Baghdad, Iraq; Dubai, United Arab Emirates and; in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, under its well-thought brand name MATEEN Express.
It then quickly expanded to China, opening up two main branches in Guangzhou and Yiwu, with multiple private and shared operational hubs across Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The company kept on developing new concepts, launching new services, improving its offerings, strengthening its workforce with more talents, gaining more grounds and expanding steadily.
By 2014, the group had grown to own 25 branches across the UAE, Iraq, Kurdistan, China and Turkey, employing over 450 staff of 14 nationalities, including Spanish, Germans, Britons and others with origins from the Middle and Far East, among other nations.
Since its establishment in early 2003, MATEEN Express has been operating in its empowering visionary slogan of “Connecting Iraq to the world”—which became literally necessary for every new Iraqi entrant in the field to establish their authenticity.
MATEEN Express proved it’s resilient with no other operators capable of living up to the company’s pledge to its growing customer base in Iraq.
From Soviet era aircraft to modern cargo planes
Despite huge logistical challenges, MATEEN Express began operations in Iraq chartering or co-chartering Soviet-era military freighter aircraft, the Antonov-12, the world’s largest cargo plane (AN-12), and the transport plane Ilyushin II-76, originally designed to deliver heavy machineries to remote areas.
Barzanji says the ease of operating these types of aircraft made their operations seamless apart from imparting to their team invaluable experience in all operational and commercial aspects of flying.
In 2009 the company began commercially operating Western palletized freighters (Boeing-747F, A300F and DC8-63F) into Erbil and Sulaimaniya in the Kurdish Region.
“The DC-8-63F was never operated to Iraq or Kurdistan commercially, let alone on schedule.” Barzanji says, adding, “The core operational difference between the western equipment versus the Soviet ones served MATEEN Express so well in every aspect, especially in dramatically shortening the timings.”
“It enabled us to offer shorter cut-off time in receiving cargo from freight forwarders and direct customers like the DC-8 at the point of origin. The process takes shorter time, from landing until the cargo is cleared and delivered to their final destinations. Most often, the total time saved was almost 6-8 hours, a full working day.”
“The switch to DC-8-63F saved the trading cycle by more than half leading to much more efficient usage of the capital for MATEEN Express’s customers, while saving on fuel consumption and loading more on an aircraft type that was mostly abandoned by almost all operators,” he said noting that the company’s good experience with DC-8 prompted it to start operating the B-747F.
The businessman said the B-747 is no stranger to Iraq with other service providers using it both for military and Iraqi government charter flights.
“But it is totally different when you have to fill in a 100 tons aircraft with individual shipments of over 170 customers (freight forwarders, integrators, direct customers). The sum all these, and our participation in every exhibition in Iraq since 2004, the sizeable investment in our infra-structure and human capital, as well as our prominence on local media, qualified us to lead this industry from the ground up. Whatever we did or say, it took only 6-12 months to be copied by others, where we installed a facility, a copycat opened nearby…,” he added.
Logistics with roots & heritage
Mateen refers to a mountain in Kurdistan (Northwest of Erbil) which in Arabic means “strong, solid, stable, reliable and trustworthy,” among a host of other positive adjectives.
“Mateen is an Arabic word with a very rich meaning,” Barzanji explained on how they came about with the company name from a selection of 28. “We believe a brand name should be selected based on the essence of the company’s vision and mission.”
True to its name, MATEEN Express made history when it landed the first air commercial shipment in Baghdad Airport and the first commercial cargo flight that went into Erbil Airport, even before it could gain its IATA code.
Barzanji worked in Iraq for sometime as an engineer before moving to the UAE to work as a junior design engineer for a major consulting engineering firm based in Abu Dhabi.
Closely monitoring geopolitical changes in the region, especially after the 911 events and the global mobilization of troops to the area, Barzanji connected the dots and made a good sense of what could come next in Iraq, before making a leap to become an entrepreneur.
In 2002 or two years after moving to the UAE, Barzanji left his job and ventured on his own business dealing with info-tech/telecom distribution and retail. He eventually established MATEEN Express in Iraq and the UAE with colleagues.
With first-hand insight of what Iraq needs in terms of transportation and logistics, Barzanji introduced the modern concepts of supply chain management such as cash flow management, stock management, just in-time deliveries, quick market connections, repair-and-return among others in to the country despite the odds.
Within just a short period of time, MATEEN Express has successfully established itself as a reliable and trustworthy logistics company that customers can depend on in good or bad times.
Barzanji said the company achieved that by living up to its core values of honesty and serving customers to the best of their abilities.
“We always do what is best for the customer. We strongly believe that one of the key responsibilities of any logistician is to advise the customer how his shipment could best be delivered (cost, transit time, routing and entry point, potential risks, required documentation, among others). In many cases, we let go a portion of our profit by offering what is best for the customer. We had some tough time how to practice this when we started offering ocean freight service to the public,” he said.
“This trait alone has served us so well. Beyond any marketing efforts, we gained the trust of everyone, customers, associates, service provider and government departments and authorities,” he added.
The engineer turned businessman said they have many experiences where honesty was put to the test. For instance, in November 2007, right before the Dubai Airshow, the company received a call from a major oil firm, “requesting for a miracle” to immediately transport two heavy machineries to Iraq.
“The client (VP of Service & Procurement) told my colleague, ‘We have two MOROOKA towing tractors kept with another operator for seven days already and despite screaming to them repeatedly how desperately we need them on site, they failed to take any action.’ So, we received the vehicles at Dubai Airport before noon of 7th November 2007.
“It was a difficult situation due to the Dubai Airshow 2007, DCAA temporarily ddidn’t give permission for IL-76’s to fly. We had to act very quickly to save the client. So, we met the customs manager at DAFZA to approve retrieving the vehicles out of Dubai customs bonded warehouse (Dubai airport FLC), and re-arranged our flight plan to load them from Sharjah. We did it…Following a well-engineered collaborative effort of our flight, ground, customs, safety and transport teams, we delivered the units right before the sunset of 9th Nov 2007, just like a miracle.”
Barzanji said what impressed the client more than the company’s flexibility to deliver on its promise is its honesty.
“They agreed to a full charter price due to their critical situation, but we managed to load about 8 tons of commercial cargo on the same flight and shared a copy of the original manifest with them. We shared the revenue of this excess cargo as discount on their bill. They couldn’t believe how far we would go in putting our values in practice,” he recalled.
Helping rebuild Iraq
Since 2003 Iraq has been facing a different kind of war, reconstruction and rebuilding. Its violent past destroyed much of its basic infra-structure, cities and villages wiped out, millions displaced & rendered jobless.
Officials estimate Iraq would need at least US$88.2 billion to restore. Of this, about $17 billion would just go to rebuilding homes.
The World Bank says Iraq’s growth outlook is set to improve in 2019 with oil production expected to increase due to favorable security environment and a gradual pickup of investment for reconstruction.
In post-war era, MATEEN Express’s primary role of transporting and delivering what Iraq and its people needs remains vital.
It ships on a regular basis high-tech disinfectant from Mexico to key cities in Iraq to protect people from bacterial and germicidal infections, especially when there are large gatherings for religious purposes.
It is also actively helping Iraqis striving to rebuild their livelihood by hauling products they ordered overseas such as equipment, building materials, machineries, cosmetics, vehicles, among many others.
The company also encourages clients to communicate their concerns and needs to help broaden their options. “We cater to a broad and wide range of services,” says Barzanji who noted that part of their success in serving customers is being based in Dubai which is safe and business friendly. “You don’t feel like a stranger in Dubai. We’re based in the UAE and that helps.”
With offices in Dubai, Turkey and China, MATEEN Express is strategically positioned to effectively meet the current and future logistics and supply needs of their clients.
“It’s a fact that whatever happens in the political landscape has an impact on business. Logistics and freight forwarding, their nature of business is responsive. Somebody is buying something, regardless of the mode of transportation and time sensitivity. In general, for any business to grow, commercial activities must grow,” concludes Barzanji who was elected in 2015 as board member in the Executive Committee of the National Association of Freight and Logistics, a nonprofit group representing the freight and logistics industry in the UAE. The body entrusted him to chair the Air Freight Subcommittee.
Deeply rooted in Iraq with personal insight on the ground, Barzanji shares his thoughts on what to expect on the future of the air cargo industry in the country, once the envy of many with its vast oil resources and wealth.
Well, on global and regional levels, the air cargo industry faces many challenges. The soft global economy, the new trade wars, flight disruptions due to political situations and conflicts would be just a few.
Many major freight operators reported continuous prolonged losses, some quit already, or have downsized dramatically, yet the ball is still rolling.
Conflicts in our region create opportunities for charter operators with ties to the military. But this business model is based on instabilities and chaos and what comes with them is the surge in need of supply – mostly conflict-related – even if humanitarian issues are involved sometimes just used as coating.
On the contrary, for commercial scheduled freighter operations to be profitable and sustainable, peace, stability, and positive market conditions are required.
For a long time, I practically have proven the concept that I believed in –”If a freighter operator flies on schedule; everyone will fine-tune his or her supply with it.”
Yet over the last couple of years, the global market landscape had imposed tough times on every freight operator to become creative in introducing new routes. In fact, maintaining current operations is already a tough challenge for almost everyone.
You hear merger talks here and there; You see collaborations among operators thought to be sort of competitors. Airlines that used to say we fly solo now cooperate on different levels, and so on.
Bear in mind, sustainable commercial air cargo, is the product of close cooperation and collaboration of so many stakeholders, governmental, private and semi.
Any successful efforts – e-air waybill – for example, involves airlines, freight forwarders, shippers, ground handlers, police & airport security, airport authorities, customs department, technology providers – Calogi for example – as well as industry bodies like IATA, FIATA, the latter represented by NAFL in the UAE.
This leads me to the question where we started. What is next for the air cargo industry in Iraq?
Let’s agree on some facts. This oil-rich country is pretty much devastated in every aspect. With over 15 years of continuous destruction going on, entire cities are flattened to the ground, no real infrastructure roads, bridges, power stations, dams, hospitals, universities, hotels, entertainment facilities, you name it. Any time real rebuilding efforts show on the horizon, there will be massive requirements for logistics and supply chain services, air cargo included.
But let’s be realistic. The Iraqi government, if there is one soon and I don’t expect it to march to real different drummer, will have pretty much the same problems as its predecessors. The past governments were not very successful in truly developing much when it comes to the air cargo industry.
Any government (past, present and future ones) needs a strong drive to put all these stakeholders to collaborate and to improve the air cargo industry. And what would be the source of this drive?
None of the previous governments showed much interest in developing Iraq’s air cargo industry. Is this going to change? I don’t think so. The very nature of air cargo fades out compared to the fanciness of passenger aircraft and private executive jets, good looking air hostesses and super prestigious airport terminals unless there is a real drive sourced from deep understanding of the significance of air cargo and its impact on people’s lives, contribution in enhancing the supply chain performance and hastening the economic cycle as well as the success or failure of any real business and industries such as pharmaceuticals, telecoms, fresh and frozen food, to name a few.
As for Kurdistan, first it does not have control over its own sky or the airports. Second, the September 30, 2018 election is yet to have its results cleared, and a new KRG could take a few months to get into action.
Even when it is operative, I don’t think we will witness major improvements in the foreseeable future. We will have to wait for the actual rebuilding of Iraq to start, until then, I think standing tall and ready to engage is a challenge for many.
Logitrans is the most important trade fair for the logistics industry in Turkey and the Eurasian region. Turkey is the logistics hub between Europe, the Middle East and Asia – and the opening of the new airport in Istanbul is strengthening its position. This will also be reflected at logitrans, which will have two central themes: air cargo and digitalization.
“Interest in integrated air cargo at logitrans is growing. The trade fair thus reflects the strengthening of air cargo through the opening of the new airport in Istanbul,” explains Gerhard Gerritzen, member of the management of Messe München and responsible for the international network of transport logistics exhibitions. The air cargo exhibitors at logitrans will include Turkish Cargo, Qatar Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo, among others. Gerritzen went on to say, “Overall, we are again expecting around 150 exhibitors from about 20 countries.” For the first time, there will also be a special area – rail cargo Turkey – focusing on the planned expansion of the Turkish railway system within the context of China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative.
Logistics in transition – highlights of the conference program
Prof. Stefan Iskan of the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwigshafen, Germany, stated that clearly “Turkey’s logistics infrastructure is undergoing fundamental change. In the intermodal area alone, we are seeing a new generation of entrepreneurs, young and dynamic.” The situation for German and international companies entering the market through joint ventures is more favorable than ever. Prof. Iskan will shed further light on this topic on the ‘Intermodal Business Turkey – Priorities the Industry Now Needs to Set’ panel of the conference program.
The digital transformation also demands the courage to make a new start. As Dr. Şevket Akinlar, consultant at Fraunhofer IML, Germany, made clear, “Fast, flexible, cooperative, biogenetic – these are the new challenges of digitalization, which will affect the logistics of the future and the associated, digitally run business models.
Dr. Akinlar will give a keynote speech on the topic ‘Digital Trends – How they affect the logistics industry?’
Further highlights of the conference program:
logitrans is the most important trade fair for the logistics industry in Turkey and the Eurasian region.
For more information on logitrans 2018, visit the website at www.logitrans.com.tr
With 13,700 participants from more than 50 different countries and 150 exhibitors from 24 nations most recently, the logitrans has developed into the leading trade fair for the complete value-added chain in the fields of logistics, telematics and transport in the Eurasian region. The logitrans is organized by EKO MMI Fuarcilik Ltd. Sti., the joint venture involving Messe München and EKO Fair Limited.
The 12th edition of logitrans will take place on November 14-16, 2018 at the IFM Istanbul Expo Center located in Turkey; logitrans is an ideal bridge between the markets of Europe, Asia and Russia.
Register today for your complimentary entrance ticket. For assistance contact via e-mail at mmi@logitrans.com.tr.
Technology has made the world smaller and faster.Real time communication with people from all over the world at different time zones through phones and gadgets
