The 5th Busworld Turkey held at the Istanbul (CNR) ExpoCenter during April 24-27 attracted a huge number of professionals of the bus and coach industry from all over the world. There were 248 exhibitors, of which 172 were local and 76 were from Germany, Italy, the UK, China, Canada, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Mexico, Slovakia, Iran, Russia, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Belgium, Luxemburg, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Bulgaria, France and the Netherlands. It also attracted trade visitors from different countries, making it a truly international exhibition.
Following the opening speeches of Mr. Bekir Çakici, General Manager, HKF Trade Fairs, Mr. Luc Glorieux, Busworld Founder, Mr. Didier Ramoudt, President, Busworld International, Mr. Burak Tarim, Mercedes-Benz Sales Department Manager, Mr. Mehmet Erdogan, TOFED President, and Mr. Talat Aydin, Deputy Under Secretary, Turkish Ministry of Transport Maritime and Communication, the customary ribbon cutting was done to formally inaugurate the show.
The International Passenger Road Transport Union (IPRU) members from 15 countries – Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Georgia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Jordon, Russia, Serbia, Sudan, Croatia, the recently added Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro – made their presence felt at the mega show. The International Road Transport Union (IRU) also visited the exhibition with foreign partners from the Middle East who attended a workshop held simultaneously in Istanbul.
Buyer groups from Morocco, Lebannon, Iran, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary and Cameroon were busy discussing deals at different levels. BusworldAcademy which had its prominent presence hosted a Fire Safety seminar which was moderated by Mr. Dominiek Viaene, the founding member and President of the European Burn Casualties Association (EBCA).
The program included presentations made by technical experts like Mr. Fredrik Rosén of SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, accidentologist Patrick Botto from France, Mr. Joseph Peoples, Manager at Kidde Technologies, Inc. of the US, Mr. Peter Lawrence, Director of Transportation at Fairport Central School District of the US, Mr. Michael Hagen, Managing Director, Fire Safety Platform of the UK, Dr. Franck Verbecke, Product Manager at AREVA, and Mr. James Wang, Transit Scholar of the Chongqing Jiaotong University of China.