Making an analysis of 2013 industrially, what are your expectations from 2014?
“Turkey, having the first rank in textile industry in Europe, is in a strong position in terms of export of textile machinery and it is still going on its improvement. The textile machinery export became 287 million dollar during the period of January-November 2013, and it is expected to be around 330 million dollar at the end of year 2013. The textile machinery export covered 2% of the general machinery export which had the value of 12.6 billion dollar in the period of January-November 2013. England became the top exporter country in terms of textile machinery with 26.4 billion dollar value within the period of January-November 2013. The textile machinery which were imported at highest in amount were the machinery used in the washing, cleaning and drying of woven threads and textile goods and the auxiliary machinery equipments such as devices, assemblies, parts, sewing machinery, furnishings, tray, cases. As we stated previously, the only way to gain strength for the textile industry, which has high significance for the Turkish economy, is to produce its own machinery and to meet the domestic demand.”
Could you please tell us about the road map, in order to increase the export of textile machinery and increase the employment ?
“The companies should attend both the national and international fairs and events as much as possible. They should share their production and quality with the world in order to increase the export so that their production power is known. It is well understood that, it is impossible to increase the export without producing value added products. This reality is quite apparent when the funds spend by the global companies on the R&D investments are observed. No companies can be indifferent to the continually advancing technology. It is an obligation to increase the R&D investments in order to compete with the global companies. Our manufacturers began to separate more resources on R&D and technology investments and Turkish machinery manufacturers began to take a more efficient role in global competition. But, the technological support should be increased and the procedures for getting incentives should be facilitated. The utilization conditions for the support of KOSGEB and Turkey Technology Improvement Foundation (Teknoloji Geliştirme Vakfı) could not be met easily and the incentives were not benefited enough because of the tedious procedures. Thus we came across with the situations of not having resources for the R&D investments. Nonetheless, joint initiatives that aim to produce the machinery, that cannot be produced domestically now and thus that are imported, should be given incentives. Moreover, protection measures against exports should be taken.
What is the position of the industry in global market?
When the imports and exports of the industry are compared with eachother, there is a big deficiency. There are large increases in export wheras there are small decreases in imports. If Turkey can handle the problems with the infrastructure, it can reach the 100 billion dollar export, which is the target of the machinery manufacturing industry for 2023. Nonetheless, the import policies should be revised and updated in accord with this target in order to reach that objective. The prior issues should be searching for new markets, continuing to make efficient international promotions, increasing the amount of investments on R&D activities, improving the co-operations among the industry. Moreover, the markets should be expanded. Being advanced in terms of engineering and giving emphasis on production flexibility, product development, factors on post production activities, Turkish companies will increase the exports amounts and they will enter new markets. In 2023, the textile machinery export will reach 2 billion dollar value if they increase their export amounts 20% each year. In this way, the target value of 100 billion dollar will be reached beside the 500 billion dollar general export. In my opinion, all sub sectors should determine their own objectives and they should work together in order to reach their objectives.
