Organized for the first time this year under the leadership of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the Turkish Maritime Summit, which is planned to become a tradition, was held on 1-3 July 2021 as a hybrid event in Shipyard Istanbul with various panels on the potential and future vision of the sector.
As part of the event, many speakers attended the panel on 'Digitalization in Maritime', while Dr. Özkan Poyraz pointed out that a future that includes artificial intelligence, robotics and automatic machines and the internet of things awaits the sector. He added that if we call steam and sailing ships ship 1.0, today perhaps we should say ‘ship 5.0’ for ships with smart shift systems and smart collision avoidance systems. Poyraz added that it is necessary to look at how these developments reflect on the ship management and the organizations related to the port, on the ship, and how ready the industry is for them. He stated that sailors should be familiar with computers because in the future computers will also include virtual reality.
Türk Loydu Chairman of the Board of Directors Cem Melikoğlu emphasized that digitalization will increase speed, performance and efficiency. At the same time, he stated that they took the plan approval system into electronic environment with the pandemic and that 2/3 of the staff increased their performance by working from home. Yilport's Head of Operations, Ian James, emphasized the importance of digitalization with the words, "We have seen the benefits of our digital investments in the past during the pandemic, our work has become easier. The port business is also moving in this direction. It has to move forward."
