The project was conceived, Turkey’s logistics network ranked 30th worldwide but offered much potential for improvement. With its strategic Black Sea location, seaports, airport and access to national rail and road networks, the Turkish city of Samsun was viewed as being in an excellent position to create a regional multi-node cluster facility that could boost the region’s competitiveness and, over the long-term, the logistics centre or ‘freight village’ under construction there will provide significant logistical amenities and value-added services to manufacturers, wholesalers/retailers and providers of logistical services. Against this background, this technical assistance project formed part of a larger programme, the overall objective of which was to improve the competitiveness of enterprises in Turkey’s TR83 region.