Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, ESBAŞ Chairman of the Board of Directors Mr. Kaya Tuncer stated  that they wanted  to attract high technology investments to the region and to this end had given emphasis on activities in the aviation and aerospace industry. Expressing the view that they had worked for 20 years in expanding industry in Turkey and had obtained  important results. Mr. Tuncer underlined the following: “The number of ESBAŞ employees has risen to 17.000, we expect this figure to rise to 20.000 in the next 18 months and at a later date we want to see it increase to 30,000 employees. Together with the investments from the Municipality we can expect it to rise to 35.000. We want to attract foreign technical knowledge and create employment opportunities for youth.