The President of Defense Industries, Haluk Görgün, stated that there was a higher attendance compared to previous years at the 16th International defence industry Fair (IDEF) this year.
Görgün mentioned that the number of international participants and visitors had also increased this year. He said, "In the previous IDEF, 38,000 square meters of space was rented, and this year, 43,000 square meters of space was rented. There are delegations from 81 countries, and participation from 102 countries. There are approximately 60,000 participants, of which around 10,000 are international participants. The number of official delegations attending the fair is also over 700. The fair started very well and continues in a great and busy pace."
During their meetings with international delegations, Görgün emphasized that they had received appreciative evaluations regarding the development of the Turkish defence industry. He further stated, "Many delegations want to take Türkiye's development as a role model, utilize and evaluate it. They emphasize that they value the transfer of Türkiye's experiences for their own development. With the uninterrupted and continuous support of our President over the past 20 years, we have brought our defence industry to its current state. We are capable of producing platforms for land, sea, and air environments. We can provide the systems and sub-systems within these platforms with our domestic technologies.
We have reached a point where we can sell systems to the far corners of the world and modernize the systems they already have. We all take pride in it, the Turkish nation. While our defence industry products stand out primarily with this fair, the infrastructure, competence, human capabilities, and qualifications behind it actually reveal themselves in the background. Because, as you know, the defence industry involves high technology. You need to use high technology."
There has been a significant increase in all indicators.
Görgün emphasized that there haD been a significant increase in the number of companies and employees in the sector compared to 20 years ago. He stated, "Back then, there were 50-60 companies, and today we have over 2,700 companies. The budget allocated solely to AR-GE was around 50 million dollars, and now it's 2 billion dollars. AR-GE expenditures have increased 40 times. Similarly, the revenue has risen from billions to 12 billion dollars. Our exports were around 250 million dollars 20 years ago, and last year it reached 4.4 billion dollars. In the first half of this year, we approached 2.5 billion dollars, and we aim to reach 6 billion dollars by the end of the year. We foresee reaching the 10 billion dollar mark in the near future. As we share our platforms with friendly and allied countries in the international arena, we believe our development will further increase."
Görgün stated that the contracts signed and meetings held during the fair would pave the way for new opportunities. He expressed that the event was organized in a manner befitting an international fair in every aspect.
"With diligence, excitement, and enthusiasm."
Görgün highlighted that IDEF'23 had showcased many new products, and companieshad proudly presented them. He stated, "In the Turkish defence industry, there are opportunities and collaborations at every layer of the pyramid structure we have built. A sustainable supply chain has been formed here. We are working with diligence, excitement, and enthusiasm." He also mentioned that export contracts were signed during the fair, and they would be shared collectively after the event. He added, "Export negotiations and new market openings are valuable opportunities for both new products and mutually complementary countries and companies. Ultimately, our goal is to increase our exports with such fairs. We will share the signed contracts in our overall evaluation at the fair venue."
