German textile machine manufacturers drew more attention than expected in Gaziantep which is their second stop in Turkey. The conference of “German Technology meets with Turkish Textile” which was organized by VDMA took place in Gaziantep Dedeman Hotel on the 15-16th November. As in İstanbul, 28 German machine manufacturers came to Gaziantep and presented their “bluecompetence” project which focuses on innovative technologies and energy efficiency. Speeking in the first day of the conference, Adil Konukoğlu and General Director of VDMA Thomas Waldmann made important explanations about the cooperation of two countries and future of the textile sector.
Making important evaluations in the opening speech of the conference, Adil Konukoğlu invited German textile machine manufacturers to invest in Turkey. Emphasizing that they want to draw the investments to the region of Gaziantep, Konukoğlu said that “As we buy product from you, you should also import our products.”. Konukoğlu also added that they are very pleased with the fact that German textile machine manufacturers held this conference in Gaziantep which has an important place in Turkish textile sector in terms of capacity, production and export.
Expressing that German manufacturers emphasized the power of Turkish manufacturers by coming to Turkey, Konukoğlu reminded that it is an undeniable fact that Turkey is one of the leading countries in the global textile sector. Konukoğlu said that: “As country, we made an investment of 106 billion dollars in textile machines in the last 20 years. The share of Germany is over 45 %. This means that we made an investment of 43-45 billion dollars from Germany. How much exportation we made to Germany in textile should also be investigated. If we can not amortise a machine purchase in 10 years, we can not gain profits. Thus, German textile buyers should prioritise textile importation from Turkey. If mutual interests will be protected, we need to cover our investments via textile exportation from Germany in 10 years.”.
Gaziantep is the Correct Choice for Investment
Expressing that Turkey is among the countries where investment can be made owing to its young population potential, Konukoğlu invited German manufacturers to make investment in Turkey. Stating that Gaziantep is one of the important regions in terms of textile, Konukoğlu also added that developped machine sector of Gaziantep would enable us to find all spare parts and make all productions. Furthermore, Konukoğlu stated that Turkey ranks second in the textile and clothes export to the EU countries, ranks seventh in the world in cotton consumption, ranks fifth in fiber ring yarn production, ranks fourth in open-end yarn production and is the world leader in organic cotton production.
Stating that Turkey is the leading investor of the world in the global textile and apparel sectors, Konukoğlu emphasized that Turkey is the fourth biggest country in the world in terms of short fiber spindle investment in the last 20 years, third biggest country in the long fiber spindle investment, second in the open-end yarn investment and fifth in its weaving loom investment. Calling out to German textile machine manufacturers, Konukoğlu added that they are ready for all missions and tasks as GSO in this respect and German manufacturers will not experience any difficulties in terms of space and trained staff.
Turkey has a serious internal consumption potential
Making evaluations about the participants in the conference, General Director of VDMA Thomas Waldmann touched upon bluecompetence initiative and energy efficiency. In his speech, Waldmann explained the importance of producing new products such as technical textiles, improving competitiveness by increasing efficiency, making energy and resource saving during production. He also added that increasing performance by working as customer-oriented and reaching success at the point of sustainability are of paramount importance. Reminding that Turkish textile sector recorded an important development, Waldmann concluded his remarks by saying: “Turkey is a country with a great domestic consumption potential. Turkish textile sector competes with its Asian rivals at a high level. We are happy to be your partner. Our market share increased by 40 % in Turkey.
