The Chemistry Technology Center (KTM), designed by the Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters’ Association (İKMİB), the umbrella organization of the Turkish chemical industry’s exports, and to be implemented with the support of the Istanbul Development Agency (ISTKA), is getting ready to start its operations in 2022.
KTM, which will operate on the basis of technology, innovation and sustainability, with the aim of creating a new ecosystem that will carry the chemical industry and the exports of the sector to the next level, will provide service in Turkey’s largest thematic techno park, the IT Valley. Within the scope of the test and analysis services that the Chemistry Technology Center will offer to exporters, a saving of 12.3 million dollars will be achieved every year.
İKMİB, which started the “Chemistry Technology Center” project, which will be a first in Turkey, with the vision of developing high-tech and value-added domestic products, is getting ready to establish a new generation chemistry ecosystem with this center. The Chemistry Technology Center, which will act as an advanced R&D center, will serve as a meeting point for the entire start-up ecosystem in the chemistry and related industries with its test and analysis laboratories and digital library in a 4-storey building in IT Valley, on an area of approximately 7 thousand square meters, 1,700 square meters of which is an entrepreneurship and incubation center prepared with a special infrastructure for entrepreneurs.
A total of 209 different tests will be applied within the scope of the Chemistry Technology Center put into practice by İKMİB, and 100 tests will be accredited. Currently, 39 tests carried out abroad will be carried out with national resources thanks to KTM. It is planned that the center will serve with a total capacity of 1 million 201 thousand 883 tests per year, once it is fully operational. In addition, within the scope of testing and analysis services, KTM is anticipated to contribute $12.3 million annually to the current account deficit at optimum capacity.
A cooperation protocol was signed between the Kimya Araştırma Teknoloji ve İnovasyon Merkezi A.Ş. (KATİM), which is planned to start its activities this year in Turkey’s technology and innovation base, IT Valley, right in the heart of 3 important industrial cities that produce with high technology such as Bursa, Kocaeli and İstanbul, and the IT Valley. The signing ceremony held in IT Valley was carried out with the participation of T.R. Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, T.R. Deputy Minister of Trade Özgür Volkan Ağar, Governor of Kocaeli Seddar Yavuz, İKMİB Chairman of the Board Adil Pelister, IT Valley General Manager A. Serdar İbrahimcioğlu as well as NGOs and sector representatives.
Mustafa Varank: “The Chemistry Technology Center is one of the investments that will make a great contribution to the sector”
Speaking at the Chemistry Technology Center-Informatics Valley Signing Ceremony, T.R. Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank said: “Our Esteemed President made the inauguration of IT Valley in 2019. This valley, which is one of the most concrete steps of our National Technology Move vision, has made tremendous progress since then. Currently, more than 270 R&D companies operating in critical fields from mobility to information and communication technologies, and from software to design are in here.
Each of these companies leads the works that will reinforce the economic and technological independence of our country with the projects they carry out. TOGG continues its R&D activities here with about a thousand engineers. One and a half month ago, we laid the foundation of IT Valley Izmir. When it is completed, it will host many local and foreign technology entrepreneurs.
Today, we have come together for another project that befits the goals and vision of the valley. We will sign to establish the Chemistry Technology Center, which started under the leadership of İKMİB and reached its present day as a result of a very comprehensive needs analysis, in IT Valley. This center will fill an important gap in accelerating the test-analysis processes needed by the sector and reducing our country’s foreign dependency in this area.
Currently, our exporters have to receive services from abroad for nearly 50 tests and analyzes. Hopefully, when this center becomes operational, 209 tests needed in the sector will be conducted here, with domestic and national resources, in accordance with international standards.
Our manufacturers will be able to save time and reduce their costs. This place is being designed as a qualified R&D center that will offer comprehensive training and consultancy services to the sector. Therefore, it will contribute significantly to the development of technical and human capacity in the sector. Another critical feature of the center is that an incubation center will be set up within its structure. Innovative start-ups that will develop chemistry technologies will sprout in this center, which will be one of the best examples of cooperation between the public, industry and universities. I congratulate everyone who contributed to this project, which has strategic importance in every aspect.
I sincerely believe that with the dynamism that the center will add to the sector, our exports of chemical products, which have already broken records, will increase rapidly. It is very important that we put this center into action as soon as possible. With IT Valley, we give our best support to speed up this work. We will not receive rent for 1 year, I hope this will be beneficial. I would like to underline that the Chemistry Technology Center is one of the investments that will make a great contribution to the sector.”
Adil Pelister: “Turkey is growing with chemistry”
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Adil Pelister, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of İKMİB, stated that the signing ceremony between İKMİB and IT Valley is the first step in the implementation of the Chemistry Technology Center project and said: “With the lease agreement we will sign between the Kimya Araştırma Teknoloji ve İnovasyon Merkezi (KATİM) A.Ş., the operator of our Chemistry Technology Center, and the IT Valley management, we are taking our place in this most important technology development and application zone of our country.
Our main goal is to raise our chemical industry, which is the source of raw materials, semi-finished products and products for 27 other sectors along with its 16 sub-sectors to the highest levels, as in all developed countries. We see the contribution of the chemical industry from food to textile, from automotive to communication, from defense industry to space technologies, agriculture, medicine and medical fields. The phrase “Turkey is Growing with Chemistry”, which we have set as our motto, is not an exaggeration at all. We believe that the growth trend of all our other sectors will accelerate to the extent that we grow the chemical industry and develop its technologies.”
Pelister: “KTM will play a major role in the transition and adaptation processes of our chemical industry to the green economy”
Stating that the Chemistry Technology Center will save millions of dollars every year with its internationally accredited test and analysis laboratories, Pelister said: “On the other hand, through our Sustainability Center, it will also play a major role in the transition and adaptation processes of our chemistry industry, especially our SMEs, to the green economy. In addition, by establishing our digital library, we will open all sectorial scientific publications to our users and the world of science.
Through our entrepreneurship incubation center, we will contribute to the realization of new inventions and technologies by our young scientists and academics in the field of chemistry, especially within the scope of industry-university cooperation. We will also implement our joint fundraising models in this field in a short time. While doing all this, we will also be open to developing joint projects and models with the management of our IT Valley. We have achieved the first place in exports on a sectorial basis.
Hopefully, we will continue to work with all our strength to make this situation permanent. We will exceed 50 billion dollars, which is our export target for the chemical industry in 2030. With this enthusiasm and determination, we may be able to achieve this goal much earlier. On the other hand, I appreciate the establishment of the “Chemistry Industry Technical Committee” by our Ministry of Industry and Technology, which we see as the cornerstone for the establishment of the Turkish Chemistry Agency, and I would like to emphasize that, as İKMİB, we will participate in the works in this committee with all our efforts”.
Serdar İbrahimcioğlu, “The incubation center is also put into action with this cooperation”
In his speech, IT Valley General Manager A. Serdar İbrahimcioğlu said: “In fact, today we do not just sign a cooperation protocol, we bring together the two main forces of the region, automotive and chemistry, in a common center, in the innovation and technology base of Turkey, which we call the station of digitalization.
On this occasion, we bring the chemistry industry together with the mobility field, which is one of our 6 vertical sectors. While we know that the chemicals industry is one of the strongest fields, we are also carrying out a cooperation with up to 300 software companies at the moment through which we can support this field.
This center will not only be a center that will study chemical technologies, but will also provide an infrastructure that can develop Turkey’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and provide entrepreneurs in the field of chemistry with an infrastructure in which they can do better work in Turkey. In fact, we are bringing together a common incubation business model that will provide service to chemistry entrepreneurs”.
Innovations that the Chemistry Technology Center will provide:
KTM will have a national software that can compete with the two most important laboratories in the world in terms of Laboratory Management Systems software. With the Istanbul Chemistry Device Inventory, at least 70 percent of the devices within the institutions and open to external use will be registered.
A Chemistry Collaboration Consortium will be established with 10 organizations that comply with the KTM joint working rules and comply with the basic testing methodology. In this way, at least 30 devices that are inactive or used at low capacity will be brought to the ecosystem. In addition, access to a consultant and a healthy consultancy, which is one of the issues that the sector has the most difficulty in practice, will be solved with the assurance of KTM.
