The most recent of the industrial communication meetings initiated by MHGF in 2012 was held in Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce (GTO) that hosted by the member association, Combing Garment Manufacturing and Apparel Association (PENKON)
Öztürk: “We Should Develop Regional Exports”
At the opening speech, Öztürk pointed out that the ready-made clothing industry is unique with an investment power of one thousand dollars per person to be employed, and said that an investment of one billion dollars provides employment for nearly one million people. While mentioning about the design and R&D that should exist in big cities and standard production that should remain in Anatolia in every platform, MHGF President continued his wording as follows, “Turkey has a total export of 35 billion dollars in the fields of textiles, ready-made clothing, leather garments and shoes. I would like to emphasize that this export figure is completely domestic and national. We should never give away our regional pricing for the expansion of the industry in Anatolia, especially in the 6th Region. Incentives are normally given to producers and entrepreneurs in development regions. We cannot leave them to the client. Another issue is that instead of carrying the export power readily available in big cities to here, we should raise new exporters at our own areas and develop regional exports and also win them to our national exports. In our meeting with Export Development (İGE A.Ş.) here today, we will discuss the issue of exporter's access to finance.”
MHGF President Öztürk stated that they have implemented regional coordinators in order to increase the communication of regions within themselves and to be partner cities that complement each other rather than competing with each other, and stated that they have established the Aegean Regional Coordinatorship and the Eastern and Southeastern Regional Coordinatorships in this framework.
Reisoğlu: “We Could Not Reach the Desired Point in Export”
Reis Reisoğlu, President of PENKON and Head of MHGF Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Region Coordinator, pointed out that Gaziantep could not reach the desired point in exports despite being one of the locomotive provinces of the sector, with its workforce, equity capital and sectoral accumulation, and said, “Our city, with its entrepreneurial spirit, its leadership in trade and industry, It is a center that attracts attention both in its region and in the country. If we look at it as the sum of all sectors, it is in the 5th position in the ranking of the province with the highest export in Turkey with 10.1 billion dollars today.”
Reisoğlu, who said that only 274 million dollars of apparel export was realized last year in total in Diyarbakır, Cizre, Malatya, Kahramanmaraş, Mardin, Şanlıurfa, Kilis and Adıyaman together with Gaziantep, "Despite of our production power, our own capital of 100 percent, our sectoral knowledge, our young workforce and our leadership in textiles, we still could not reach the level we have set for ourselves.’’
Fashion and Apparel Federation (MHGF):
The Fashion and Apparel Federation (MHGF), which represents the sectoral and regional associations in Turkey's leading sectors in employment, production and export, in textile, ready-made clothing, fashion, leather, leather apparel and footwear, and which is the only top umbrella organization in the country in its field, was established in 2007. It was established by the coming together of 11 associations. As of today, MHGF, which represents 31 sectoral and regional associations and nearly 10 thousand member companies from all over Turkey, is the Federation with the highest number of member associations under the umbrella of the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (TÜRKONFED).
