TRY 1.2 Billion in 6 Investments at GEBKİM

Turkchem 09 Nov 2020 70 2 dk okuma

TURKCHEM

GEBKİM, Turkey's first chemistry-focused organized industrial zone, hosted a joint foundation-laying and opening ceremony for six facilities implemented with approximately TRY 1.2 billion in investment. The ceremony, attended via video conference by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, featured the foundation-laying and opening of new production facilities operated by Koruma Temizlik, Ece Boya and Gentaş Kimya in the GEBKİM Chemistry Specialized Organized Industrial Zone.

The ceremony included the opening of the GEBKİM Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School Application and Pilot Production Facility and laboratories established through the GEBKİM Education, Research and Health Foundation, as well as the foundation-laying for the GEBKİM Kindergarten in Dilovası, also implemented by the Foundation. Total investment value reached TRY 1.2 billion, creating employment for over 1,000 people. The new production facilities are targeted to generate approximately USD 100 million in annual exports. High-value-added domestic chemical production will contribute to exports while reducing imports and helping address the current account deficit.

[caption id="attachment_110910" align="aligncenter"] Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank[/caption]

"We have created a chemistry ecosystem"

GEBKİM Chemistry Specialized Organized Industrial Zone Board Chairman Vefa İbrahim Aracı: "Twenty years ago, we pursued an unconventional idea and dreamed of building a chemistry cluster from scratch. Today, GEBKİM has become an important player in the sector with 66 companies and annual export volume reaching TRY 4 billion. We have created a chemistry ecosystem here. Cooperation, environmental sensitivity, investment in innovation, honest business practices, service to country development, and most importantly, investment in people—these are the common denominators of all factories in this zone. The new factories we are opening and laying foundations for today with the presence of our President and Minister will add strength to GEBKİM's power.

[caption id="attachment_110917" align="aligncenter"] Chemistry Specialized Organized Industrial Zone Board Chairman Vefa İbrahim Aracı[/caption]

More importantly, this will return to Turkish industry as increased exports and employment. All of these investments are important and valuable, but I would like to emphasize our kindergarten and vocational school projects separately. We have more than 400 female employees at GEBKİM. We want to increase this number further. Unfortunately, women's employment in our country is not at the desired level. As GEBKİM, we want to reverse this situation within our own ecosystem. Women work in industry, and they work excellently—we have no doubt about this.

The GEBKİM Kindergarten we are laying the foundation for is a project we have implemented so that working mothers do not have to worry. The GEBKİM Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School will perhaps be the most important investment I will leave for the future in my entire business career. We revitalized the high school, which we acquired in 2018, with TRY 20 million in investment. We equipped the laboratories in the school with expert names in the field. We brought the best of what was needed for our children. We wanted them to spend their free time at school in the best way possible. We wanted them to use their imagination at the Pilot Production Facility and put what they learned in class into practice with their own methods. The doors of GEBKİM will be wide open to all of them after graduation" he said.