MAKFED HOLDS PROMOTIONAL MEETING FOR MACHINERY SPECIALIZED OIZ

New growth hub for machinery sector being established in Thrace

Machinery manufacturing; with its production capacity, contribution to exports, employment generation and added value creation; ranks among the leading sectors of Turkey's economy. More than 13,000 companies representing the sector continue to grow within insufficient organized industrial zones, small industrial parks and the congested structure of cities. The Machinery Manufacturers' Associations Federation (MAKFED), which draws attention with projects that will advance the sector, is implementing an Organized Industrial Zone that will consolidate the sector from its fragmented structure. MAKFED introduced the region's first and only specialised organized industrial zone for machinery in Thrace at an introduction meeting held at the Polat Renaissance Hotel. The Machinery Specialised OSB Introduction Meeting, held under the chairmanship of MAKFED Board of Directors Chairman Adnan Dalgakıran and the Board of Directors, whose member associations include 18 sectoral associations, drew significant interest from machinery manufacturers. In the machinery manufacturing industry, which is predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises, there are over 13,000 manufacturing companies providing employment to 220,000 people. The sector operates in industrialised provinces, with its companies concentrated in cities such as Istanbul, Bursa, Kocaeli, Thrace, Izmir, Eskişehir, Ankara, Konya and Gaziantep. 50 percent of machinery manufacturers operate in Organized Industrial Zones, 30 percent in Small Industrial Parks, and the remaining 20 percent operate in a scattered manner confined within cities. The Machinery Specialised OSB, which will consolidate the machinery sector from insufficient organized industrial zones, small industrial parks and within-city locations and offer many advantages in a single zone, will be located adjacent to the PAGDER&ASLAN Plastics Specialisation Special OSB established in Kırklareli-Vize.

The benefits that the Machinery Specialisation OSB to be established under MAKFED's leadership will provide to industrialists were explained at the meeting held at the Polat Renaissance Hotel.

The MAKFED Machinery Specialisation Organized Industrial Zone introduction meeting was attended by Kırklareli Governor Osman Bilgin, Istanbul Deputy Governor İsmail Gültekin, Pınarhisar Mayor Mustafa Cingöz, MAKFED Board of Directors Chairman Adnan Dalgakıran, TOBB Turkey Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Council Chairman Kutlu Karavelioğlu, Asrey

Construction Board of Directors Chairman Mehmet Ali Aslan, PAOSB Board of Directors Chairman and Asrey Construction Board of Directors Member Fidan Aslan Eroğlu, MAKFED Board of Directors Member and PAOSB Vice Chairman Hüseyin Semerci, and the Presidents of MAKFED member associations.

PAOSB Board of Directors Chairman and Asrey Construction Board of Directors Member Fidan Aslan Eroğlu, who spoke at the Machinery Specialisation Organized Industrial Zone introduction meeting, stated: "We are experiencing the excitement and joy of the cooperation between the Machinery Manufacturers' Associations Federation (MAKFED) and Asrey Construction regarding the establishment of a Machinery Specialisation Organized Industrial Zone in Kırklareli Vize. As Asrey Construction, we have played a pioneering role in establishing a special organized industrial zone in Vize and achieved a first in Turkey. With the protocol made with the Plastics Manufacturers' Association (PAGDER) in 2012, the first step was taken towards the establishment of the PAGDER&ASLAN Plastics Specialisation Special Organized Industrial Zone on an area of 650,000 square meters. Such cooperation between the private sector and civil society organisations was a first in our country. Today we are providing this benefit for the machinery manufacturing sector, which is the locomotive sector of our country. We aim to equip our machinery industry with a specialised OSB that it needs, with numerous advantages ranging from 30 percent cheaper energy to 45 percent investment incentives, relocation loan support thanks to its location neighbouring Istanbul and Europe, as well as modern infrastructure facilities and social living areas. The Machinery Specialisation Organized Industrial Zone will be established on 1 million square meters of land including a 400,000 square meter expansion area and will consist of three phases. The first phase will be offered to our industrialists at advantageous prices starting from 55 dollars per square meter, the second phase from 70 dollars per square meter, and the third phase from 85 dollars per square meter. We have also fixed the dollar exchange rate at 1$ = TRY 4.5. I wish our Machinery Organized Industrial Zone to bring benefits to our country, the machinery manufacturing industry and the region." TOBB Turkey Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Council Chairman Kutlu Karavelioğlu, who spoke after Fidan Aslan Eroğlu, drew attention to the importance of high technology and stated: "According to the latest United Nations classification, China exported more high-tech products than the combined total of the USA and Germany.

China's export share in this total was 24 percent while the exports of the other two countries remained at around 18 percent. According to this same classification, we see that Taiwan has increased the share of high-tech product exports in its total exports to 45 percent.

South Korea's share of high-tech products in exports is 28 percent. I am giving an example only from electronic communications. While the combined advanced technology exports of Germany, the USA and Japan fell from 83 billion dollars to 63 billion dollars within 10-15 years, China, Taiwan and South Korea's combined high-tech exports increased from 80 billion dollars to 620 billion dollars during the same period. This has become a territory clearly lost to Western industry. The reason why every country now has to resort to protectionist policies to attract investment and create employment is this. What we call trade wars is this… We are talking about a battle that has already been lost in this area. The only fortress left in the West's hands is advanced technology machinery manufacturing, and its figures are as follows; In high-tech machinery manufacturing, China, Taiwan and Korea increased their exports from 4 billion dollars to 7 billion dollars in the last 15 years, while the USA, Germany and Japan's high-tech machinery exports over 15 years increased from 19 billion dollars to 27 billion dollars.

We see that competition is on a knife's edge and that the West will have great difficulty in this war. The Industry 4.0 argument has actually been put forward for this reason. These figures are important in showing the source of change in the global economy. I believe this change in the world will bring important opportunities for us as well."

MAKFED Board of Directors Chairman Adnan Dalgakıran, who emphasised the importance of the machinery sector for the country's economy in his speech at the meeting, stated: "What a locomotive is to a train, the machinery sector is to the country. Countries that do not accept this will never enter the developed country category. In the last 60 years, only two countries have moved from the developing country category to the developed country category: Taiwan and South Korea. They did this by focusing on machinery, electronics and software. There is not a single country in the world that has become rich without producing machinery. China's machinery exports were 3 billion dollars in 1992 and increased to 270 billion dollars in 2005. Why did they invest in this area because countries that cannot produce their own means of production import technology from abroad and perform basic labour. If Turkey is to become a large economy, it must be a country with a say in the machinery sector in the world. With such machinery manufacturing industry infrastructure established in our country, this can be done by putting forward strategies that can grow it."

MAKFED Chairman Adnan Dalgakıran stated that the Machinery Specialisation OSB will create the synergy that the sector needs and advance the machinery manufacturing industry to higher levels, saying:

"Our machinery manufacturing sector, which contributes the most to our country's economy, increased its production value by 27 percent to TRY 71.62 billion in the past year. During the same period, total turnover increased by 28.3 percent to TRY 77.49 billion. Our sector, which accounted for 9 percent of Turkey's total exports last year, achieved significant success with exports of USD 14.8 billion. Moreover, it is worth noting that developed markets such as EU countries and the USA stand out in our sector's exports. We aim to contribute USD 100 billion to Turkey's target of USD 500 billion in exports for 2023. For this, we need much more production, high technology, R&D and innovation investments and sectoral clustering. 26 percent of our companies are located in Istanbul. The industry has no opportunity to grow and develop within the city's congested structure. Although there are 2 Machinery Specialisation Organized Industrial Zones in Dilovası and Gebze on the east of Istanbul, our companies operating in a scattered manner on the European side of Istanbul and in Thrace did not have such an opportunity. Based on this reality, we are implementing the Machinery Specialisation Organized Industrial Zone where our machinery manufacturers will have more modern and growth-oriented areas. We are establishing our OSB in the Thrace Region, which stands out with Turkey's strategic importance and its neighbouring position to Europe. The Machinery Specialisation OSB, which will be located adjacent to the PAGDER&ASLAN Plastics Specialisation Special OSB in Kırklareli-Vize, aims to free our manufacturers from organized industrial zones that cannot meet the sector's needs and from the city's congested structure. Our OSB, which will be an extremely profitable investment for our participating companies, will strengthen the machinery industry's hand in global competition through sectoral clustering." Kırklareli Governor Osman Bilgin, stating that they are ready to provide all kinds of support to the MAKFED Machinery Specialisation OSB, said: "The establishment of the Machinery Specialisation Organized Industrial Zone, which will be located adjacent to PAGDER&ASLAN, Turkey's first plastics specialisation special OSB established in our Vize district, bringing machinery manufacturers to our region is of great importance especially for our province of Kırklareli.

Istanbul has now transcended provincial scale and has the character of a state. I want to emphasise the importance of the location of the Machinery Specialisation OSB to be established next to PAOSB.

Beyond the third airport and Kanal Istanbul projects, we are located in a position that will connect us to Europe with stronger ties through the high-speed rail line extending from Beijing to London. Istanbul can no longer carry industry and there are major difficulties in industrial facilities within the city. In sectors like machinery manufacturing that require clustering, I think it is of great importance to come together and meet in a common area, and for this to be under the umbrella of an OSB. With zero bureaucracy and service in one step, we are alongside the industrialists with our own person and close working colleagues. You industrialists do one of the world's most difficult jobs. In our province, we are servants of all industrialists, and I want to state that we will provide all kinds of contribution towards the realisation of this investment and infrastructure work together with them."