Industrial Cooperation Days in Defence and Aerospace Gathered Turkish and Global Companies
Ankara Industrial Cooperation Days in Defence and Aerospace (ICDDA) 2014 held under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy and Undersecretariat for Defence Industries and hosted by OSSA (OSTIM Defence and Aviation Cluster) at ATO Congresium Fair and Congress Center on 14-16 October was accomplished with the participation of 270 companies from 34 countries. Seminars and conferences on aerospace defence and off-set, workshops on procurement processes and supply chain policies and bilateral negotiations were conducted at the second of the annual event.
Prof. İsmail Demir: “Turkey’s R&D investments reached approximately 1 billion USD”
In his speech at the opening ceremony, the Undersecretary for Defence Industries Prof. İsmail Demir stated that the defence industry has transformed into a structure that mobilizes Turkey’s brain power and production potential and said, “With the production power exceeding 5 billion USD, the defence industry reached to an export capacity of nearly 1,5 billion USD and has climbed to the top of Turkey’s sector investing most in R&D and technology with product and technology development expenditures of around 1 billion USD per annum”. Expressing that defence industry activities have covered significant distance toward integration with the country’s industrial and technological base and added that over a thousand SMEs and companies are now able to conduct production on a global basis at defence industry. Prof. Demir underlined that bringing real capacities to the armed forces was the most significant outcome of this stage and it had to be accelerated in order to reach the conclusions of the process. He mentioned that all activities and efforts are aimed to introduce the final product to the field with excellent capacities through establishing a broad infrastructure. Prof. Demir, “Currently we are suffering some challenges. We are looking forward to achieving the expected results and products as well as field performances while wishing our addressees more patience. On the other hand I would like to state that through the rapid establishment of the required infrastructure, presenting a product with such a performance that will make its users proud and make its enemies repel, is close. We are longing to reach such times”. Demir remarked that International Cooperation Days in Defence and Aerospace was a platform that should also be approached in respect with the cooperation and business opportunities for the companies acting as main contractors and conducting operations in order to develop a secure and reliable supply chain in Turkey.
Chairman of the Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO), Mr. Nurettin Özdebir, stated that the Turkish economy made great progress in the last era and referred to the major transformation in industry. Mr. Özdebir expressed that being the focus of defence industry, Ankara provided more concentration to upper intermediate and high technology and said with this opportunity, companies operating in such areas altered their way of conducting businesses and started working more efficiently. Mr Özdebir mentioned that an organized industrial zone that would form the center of a cluster in defence, aerospace and space industry in Ankara with the government’s support was being established and added that they expected the local and foreign investors to take place in this cluster. Mr. Özdebir, “In particular, we wish the foreign guests discover Turkey’s and Ankara’s power and potential”.
TAI CEO & General Manager Mr. Muharrem Dörtkaşlı stated that they had grown with the sub-industry. He said they subcontracted 200 thousand hours of work with the sub-industry in 2005 and added that they had allocated a budget of 1.7 million work-hours to share with the sub-industry this year. Mr. Dörtkaşlı, announced that they had collaborated with a total of 84 domestic companies, 11 of which had been known as strategic companies. Mr. Dörtkaşlı emphasized that TAI and its business partners produced works bearing the competitive capacity, quality level and delivery performance that would easily satisfy their foreign customers and continued, “Increasing our achievements is our mission. On this quest, our business partners, the sub-industry and business allies are our greatest assurances”.
In the event where the capabilities of the local defence industry were demonstrated to the world giants, approximately 5 thousand bilateral negotiations were accomplished during three days while conferences at various sessions covering issues such as Panorama of the Aerospace, Defence & Offset Market In Turkey, International Cooperation Experiences in Turkey and Supply Chain were conducted.
