Mr. Bayar, the Undersecretary of Defense Industry stated that they supported the private sector participating in defense industry projects by emphasizing the importance of local participation in Turkish defense industry. He said that Turkish Armed Forces Information System Project carried out by Koc Information and Defense Technologies Inc. was an important Project in terms of National Defense Industry and for the fact that it enabled the headquarter of General Staff to have an information communication with other units in an automated way. Mr. Bayar noting that this project was conducted upon a great competitive bidding process stated that it was carried out diligently due to its nature not to tolerate any mistake. Also he emphasized that the data in the framework of Turkish Armed Forces Information System Project was given to the Chief of General Staff everyday. Mr. Bayar stating that this project was extremely comprehensive drew attention to the fact that the project was a domestic tender completely. He also said that they paid lower prize because they made the invoice at the US. Dollar parity of December 2007 instead of making at the parity of 2005 in which they signed the contract.

Mr. Ali Koc, the President of Koc Holding Corporate Communications and Information Technology Group pointed out in his speech during ceremony that they were proud to complete Turkish Armed Forces Information System Project being an extremely important and strategic project in a best way. Mr. Koc who drew attention to the fact that dependency on abroad for the national defense would decrease in the context of “nationalization – local contribution” vision developed by the Undersecratariat of Defense Industry stated that Turkey needed a rich economy, competitive private sector, powerful army and innovative technology in order to be a leader of this region. He continued as follows: “Koc Group believes wholeheartedly that Turkey will be and should be the leader of this region. By noting that they increased the export incomes from 16 million dollars to 3, 4 billion dollars in 2007 over the past 11 years, he emphasized that they want to achieve this kind of success in the defense industry as well.

Mr. Mehmet Nalbantoglu, the General Manager of Koc Information and Defense Technologies Company said in his speech that they accomplished a successful project and they would participate in these kinds of project more. Mr Recep Barut, the General Manager of the Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade Inc. emphasized that this project was an integrated communication project and completely national cooperation work.

At the end of ceremony, the plaques were awarded to the participants who contributed to the project.

Thanks to this information system, the General Staff will exchange information with the Force Commands, Gendarmerie Command, Coast Guard Command and Minister of Defense out of an integrated platform.

This system integrates and operates with the Regional Information System (RIS), Message Formatting System (MEFORS) for the formatted messages, the uniformed Organization, Equipment and Staff structure by taking from all Force Commands, the Data Dictionary developed for Turkish Armed Forces and to be used in all armed forces and the Document Management System supplied within the context of this project.