Turkey looks for GCC partnerships as Gulf Traffic budgets soar

The Turkish company is hoping to seal associations and partnerships at the Gulf Traffic exhibition and conference to be held in Dubai in December. ISBAK, which made its Middle East exhibition debut at the inaugural Gulf Traffic last year, is a platinum sponsor of this year's show, which is set to grow by 350%.

'Our interest is a reflection of the speed at which this segment is evolving throughout the Middle East,' said Derya Demir, ISBAK's International Business and Marketing Manager.

'Though many of the projects on regional drawing boards require the redevelopment of narrow city centres, the region has huge development plans, often on virgin land, where the very latest techniques and equipment can be utilised. Gulf Traffic will help us reach partners who influence the developers.'

ISBAK is planning to demonstrate its flagship I.T.S. systems at Gulf Traffic, which will run from December 8-11 at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre. Demonstrations will centre around Secufare, the world's first secured ticketing system which helped Istanbul Municipality increase its revenue by 23% a month, and ISBAK's intersection controller.

'This provides real-time, reliable measurement of traffic flow by processing the video images of a monitored area,' said Demir. 'The high performing MPEG digital video surveillance, requires little maintenance yet delivers accuracy which helps control and plan traffic flow.'

ISBAK, which also provides consultancy on traffic and transport planning and engineering, will also demonstrate digital management systems, which can achieve 24-hour control of traffic flow in big cities.

'Traffic congestion is a relatively new phenomenon within the Gulf but one which is an increasing problem. Regional authorities are allocating huge budgets for new roads and systems to ease and control traffic flow and I.T.S. systems are high on the specification list,' said Davyd Farrell, Exhibition Manager, IIR Exhibitions and Conference, which organises Gulf Traffic.

'Hardly a day goes by when another traffic or transport scheme isn't unveiled in the region with the latest being a huge upgrade of Dubai's Traffic Systems Control Centre. The Centre's capacity is being increased to deal with a projected 10% increase in the number of signalled junctions in Dubai by the end of this year.'

To date, companies from Europe, the Middle East and the USA have contracted for Gulf Traffic, which has the official support of municipalities throughout the GCC.