Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone is currently the biggest OIZ in Turkey with its 5 zones and 43 million 250 thousand square meters of area. With the 6th Organized Industrial Zone (OIZ) where infrastructure works have been initiated, employment is expected to increase up to 350,000 people with 12 million sqm added areas. We will put our Euphrates-OIZ water transmission line project into operation in the beginning of 2025. With the completion of this project, fabric dyeing, yarn dyeing and similar sectors which demand water will grow in Gaziantep and diversity in textile industry will increase further.
Musa İmdat, who has been organizing Textile Machinery fairs for many years in the textile sector, made statements to our publication group about their new project Gaziantep Textile Machinery Fair GTMF 2025. In addition to International Fair Builders Organization Ltd. Şti; Partner and Board Member of Birleşik Fuar Yapım A.Ş. which was established as a consortium of ECR Fuarcılık Ltd. Şti. and many fair companies, İmdat is also one of the founders of the International Fair Builders Association and currently serves as the chairman of the audit and supervisory board.
We interviewed the organizer of the event, International Fuarcılık General Manager Musa İmdat about the most inclusive issues on the agenda about the Gaziantep Textile Machinery Fair GTMF 2025.
What was the major reasons to decide on Gaziantep to run a fair?
Gaziantep has been the leader in many product groups with its Textile Production Capacities. In addition to the textile production carried out by Gaziantep, the city positioned as the center of Turkish textile production with the textile industry which is clustered around the neighboring cities.
Textile Production Cluster
The region where 75 percent of Turkish textile production is carried out around Gaziantep, Adana, Adıyaman, Kayseri, Kahramanmaraş, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa neighboring cities. As a natural outcome of this clustering, the Turkish market, in wider acknowledgment, regarded as the prominent region to run the fair, for both domestic and foreign textile machinery manufacturers. This region has a structure that benefits greatly from the incentives provided by the state.
Full Support from Gaziantep City and Industrialists to the Event
The city of Gaziantep is willing to organize the fair in this context. We were very pleased with the cooperation and support assured by the institutions which we visited onsite to reveal information about the event, and to enquire about their views and comments with recommendations. The following section which highlights brief consultations will give you a more complementary view and insights.
Our Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, Ms. Fatma Şahin, and accompanying staff were attended to our project with a visionary outlook whom consulted to inform about the Textile Machinery Fair project. Our Minister Fatma Şahin talked about their recent works to make Gaziantep fair metropol in 2025 and underlined their support for the event which will be run under their ownership.
When we described our project work and the ongoing efforts to our Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce President Mr. Tuncay Yıldırım who welcomed us during our visit to the Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce, it was stated that Textile Machinery Fair will be supported and that the fair would be organized more successfully with cooperation. Besides, Mr. Yıldırım assured about the necessary support to invite the managements of the Chambers of Industry and Commerce in the surrounding provinces and member manufacturers to the Gaziantep Textile Machinery Fair.
Gaziantep Chamber of Industry President Mr. Adnan Ünverdi, who welcomed us during our visit to the Gaziantep Chamber of Industry, stated that a Textile Machinery Fair should be organized in Gaziantep, that the city's industrial infrastructure and the OFM fair center itself are in a unique position to organize a fair in this sector, and emphasized on the importance of organizing the event with the support and cooperation of the Gaziantep Chamber of Industry. Also, continued support was underlined.
During our visit to Gaziantep, Cengiz Şimşek, who is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Melike Tekstil and the Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone, another organization which welcomed us, expressed their own satisfaction with our fair project work and said, ‘’As the industrialists of the city, we support all projects that benefit our city. The Gaziantep Textile Machinery Fair is an event which should have its place in our city. We will provide all the necessary support to the fair’’ and continued, ‘’We set big targets for the Gaziantep Textile Machinery Fair, which is planned with the cooperation of all public and non-governmental organizations and industrial institutions, where every stage to the realization of the event finalized in full and in explicit. I would also like to express the following here as well. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the entire Gaziantep industry on behalf of our Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ms. Fatma Şahin, and our Chamber of Commerce President Mr. Tuncay Yıldırım, our Chamber of Industry President Mr. Adnan Ünverdi our Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone President Mr. Cengiz Şimşek whom were assured about their support and also to the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Secretary General Oya Alpay who accompanied us during our every visit to the Metropolitan Municipality Mayor's Office.’’
Turkey's Biggest Organized Industrial Zone
Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone is currently the biggest OIZ in Turkey with its 5 zones and 43 million 250 thousand square meters of area. With the 6th Organized Industrial Zone (OIZ) where infrastructure works have been initiated, employment is expected to increase up to 350,000 people with 12 million sqm added areas. We will put our Euphrates-OIZ water transmission line project into operation in the beginning of 2025. With the completion of this project, fabric dyeing, yarn dyeing and similar sectors which demand water will grow in Gaziantep and diversity in textile industry will increase further.
‘’Bringing the World Textile Industry Together at GTMF 2025’’ A very ambitious goal for the Fair?
It is necessary to evaluate the Fair as Organizer, Exhibitor, Visitor, Location and the current market conditions of the Textile Industry separately. First of all, organizing a Fair as an Organizer requires experience and good preparation. We have experience in the textile industry and we have been continuing the preparations for the fair since the beginning of 2023. Our entire team and infrastructure are ready.
Gaziantep OFM Fair Area is located within the Organized Industrial Zone. While exhibiting companies host visitors in all fair organizations taking place around the globe, this reality works in the opposite direction for the Gaziantep GTMF Fair. Exhibitors are preparing to welcome and host visitors instead.
Because OFM Fair Area is 300-400 meters away from the factories where textile production is carried out. It is also located on an area where the distance to other manufacturers in the region is about to 100 km. For example, Kahramanmaraş city is 40-50 km away from OFM Fair Area.
The whole world textile industry in 2024 goes on either stable or on downwards. While all indicators signalling a low end for the year end, expectations after the second half of 2025 seek for recovery for the textile sector.
In addition, Gaziantep will give direction to the mobility in the industry with new zero investments in the new Organized Industrial Zone, which will be put into operation on an area of 12 million square meters in 2025. The most important project of the Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone for the textile sector undoubtedly which is about to be completed, and channels the Euphrates water to the Organized Industrial Zone. In this way, fresh and voluminous investments will be made in Yarn and Fabric Dyeing.
It can be seen that all companies wishing to present their technology to the sector and describe their innovations are expressing their keen interest in the GTMF 2025 fair where investors and visitors are ready to showcase. There are foreign machinery manufacturers whom make enquiries through their representatives or make direct reservations. It will be an extremely successful organization both for visitors and exhibitors. My personal insight and projection about Gaziantep Textile Machinery Fair GTMF 2025 is that it will be a fair where both the exhibitor and the visitor will gain.’’
