The Teknokent Defence Industry Platform Board of Directors were introduced at the event hosted by METUTECH with the participation of Undersecretary Murad Bayar of the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM), SSM officials, officials of the Ministry of the Economy, METU officials and representatives of companies that take place in the defence industry clustering. Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar, in his speech delivered before the participants touched upon the parallelism of the work conducted by the Teknokent Defence Industry Platform (TSSP) with their own vision and stated that their goal was to meet the needs of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) through local opportunities in the best possible way and that the activities of these types of platforms were very important and valuable. Emphasizing the importance of technological superiority, Bayar stated that the activities undertaken in the current situation must be with the aim of being at international standards and to be the best in the world and that the TSSP must be utilized in the best possible way. In addition, METU Teknokent General Manager Mustafa Ihsan Kızıltaş gave a presentation at the event on the projects and activities carried out by TSSP. Kızıltaş shared information on the URGE Project which aims to support joint action and activities directed towards the exports of companies under the leadership of collaborating organisations within the framework of projects implemented by METU TSSP.

Within the framework of the URGE Project, Kızıltaş mentioned that certain support activities would be provided for companies, such as joint needs analysis, learning (training and consulting) and marketing (promotion, brand name, trade delegation, and match-up) and that within the framework of METU TSSP’s URGE Project, the Ministry of Economy would provide 75 percent of the support to collaborating organisations in the areas of training and consulting, needs analysis, overseas marketing, employment and individual consulting between the years 2012 -2015. Furthermore, Kızıltaş also provided information to the participants on one of the priority projects of the TSSP: the programme on raising researchers for the defence industry. Accordingly, the master’s thesis work of students and researchers registered in master’s programmes and that are employed in defence industry companies in the period ahead will undertake work within the framework of medium and long-term R&D projects of companies and in priority areas identified by the SSM. In addition, in order for defence industry companies within the structure of the TSSP and main contracting firms to more closely know each other, for companies to present their capabilities and references to these main contracting firms and in order to prepare projects and work packages, various project markets would be formed.