SECTORAL MEETINGS: ASELSAN
21 February 2020
MÜSİAD HEAD OFFICE
Honourable Chairman of the Board of ASELSAN,
Honourable Chairman of the Board of Teknopark İstanbul,
Distinguished Presidents and Representatives of the Business World and of NGOs,
Esteemed MÜSİAD Members and Friends,
At the opening of our meeting, where we come together with the leading representatives of the Defence Industry, I respectfully greet you all; welcome, you have honoured us with your presence.
Distinguished Guests,
Throughout history, defence has been a part of humanity's struggle to survive and of states' struggle to exist.
We are the children of forefathers who experienced that, when it comes to the struggle for independence and the defence of the homeland, victory cannot be won by advanced weapons and powerful navies alone.
We are a nation that has proven to the whole world that, with the faith in our hearts and the devotion we feel for our homeland, we can stand against armies equipped with advanced technology. Therefore, at the point the world has reached today, Türkiye's presence in the defence sector — which, together with technological developments, has turned into a colossal industry — carries entirely different meanings. Both for us and for the countries of the world that know us well.
Now, alongside our strong faith, we have a strong defence industry and advanced-technology defence equipment. We design them ourselves, and we produce them with the labour of our own people.
As MÜSİAD, we express at every opportunity that our country must increase the production of high value-added products, and we work towards this end.
To achieve this, it is clear that we must give weight to R&D and innovation and to technology-intensive products in which engineering knowledge comes further to the fore.
The Defence, Aviation and Space Industry stands out as a sector that both contains high technology and is of high strategic importance in terms of national security. Another matter that distinguishes this sector from others is that it benefits from the very latest innovations of science and technology, and that its products are generally examples of the most advanced product and production technologies.
Therefore, the sector plays an important role in the development of countries' technological infrastructure.
As MÜSİAD, our goal is to make these sectors strategic sectors not only in terms of national security but also in terms of the national economy.
Today we will speak about a sector that has made tremendous progress, especially over the last 10 years, and that advances and develops in proportion to the pace of technological development.
The Defence Industry has carried its pace of development one step beyond meeting the needs of our Armed Forces, and has begun to show a considerable presence abroad as well. In recent years the sector has attained the strength to compete with countries that may be regarded as pioneers in the defence industry.
Detailed information will be presented throughout our meeting; but I too would like to share a few figures with you briefly.
As of the end of 2018, the Total Defence and Aviation Sector Turnover, which covers all defence and aviation sales of our defence companies and indicates the size of the sector, reached USD 8.8 billion.
Defence and aviation exports, which stood at only USD 248 million in 2006, reached USD 2 billion 741 million in 2019.
As a result of the data we obtained with the contributions of 63 of our members, we see that the annual defence industry turnover of our MÜSİAD member companies has reached a total of USD 230 million.
The sector's personnel employment stands at a total of 67,239 people. One of the contributions our members make to the sector is creating an employment field for approximately 5,000 people.
The rate at which our members work with ASELSAN is 30 percent.
These figures are of course gratifying; but naturally we will intensify our efforts in order to carry these rates even higher.
Considering that engineers are employed in the sector at a rate of % 24, we may interpret this as an indication of the intensity of technological production, design and development activities.
As you know, there is a matter our Honourable President dwells on meticulously: domestic and national production.
In the defence industry in particular, domestic content is one of the singular elements that strengthen countries' hand in the international arena. The power you obtain in this field emerges before us as an extremely important point both in the production of high value-added, advanced-technology products and in demonstrating our self-defence capability.
Projects that fill our hearts with pride, such as the Atak Helicopter, the Altay Tank, the Hisar Air Defence System and the National Combat Aircraft, demonstrate Türkiye's strength in this field. Through the initiative of 27 business people, most of them MÜSİAD Members, who made it their cause to build our fully Domestic and National Civil Aircraft, and with the support of Teknopark İstanbul as well, the SAHA İstanbul Defence, Aviation and Space Cluster Association was founded on 17 March 2015.
Within five years, with a membership exceeding 400, this structure has become the largest cluster of our country in every field and the second largest in Europe.
SAHA İstanbul, which particularly aims to shift the production of our SMEs towards the Defence, Aviation and Space Sectors — the starting point of high value-added technology production and of critical importance for our country — is today an important interface and consultation body vis-à-vis the sector's Main Players, the Government, the Bureaucracy and Universities, as well as the Industries and NGOs of other countries.
As MÜSİAD we state at every opportunity: domestic producers must be supported, entrepreneurs must be encouraged, and the way must be cleared for the private sector in every respect. The role in the defence industry of ASELSAN, Türkiye's pioneering institution in the field defined as “defence electronics”, is of course not limited to this field alone. We are in fact speaking of an institution that has the power to set the entire sector in motion.
Here, I would also like to express a matter we consider extremely important:
At the point where we say our producers must be supported and our industrialists encouraged, it is of course necessary to emphasize in particular the strong role of ASELSAN as the dominant institution of the sector. Bringing to the fore the private sector companies with which ASELSAN cooperates and carries out joint production, and increasing their national and international recognition, is absolutely essential in terms of their ability to represent our country abroad.
The more our companies are recognized, the more demand they will receive, and the greater the increase in production that will be achieved.
Because we already have production that is of high quality and able to compete with producers around the world. Therefore, if we can open up more space for our companies, then, while the cooperation between them grows stronger, there is no obstacle whatsoever before us to multiplying the successes we achieve in the global market.
Esteemed Guests,
Türkiye's production power derives from factories and production facilities operating in many different fields, and from the experience and accumulated knowledge of these enterprises.
When you wish to produce in a particular field, instead of waiting for investments to be made from scratch or to develop, you can also do this by combining existing strengths and forming a joint force.
We call this clustering. Clustering is one of the methods that can carry our defence industry further forward in a short time.
Companies serving in different sectors can transfer part of their production capacity to the defence industry and supply products in this field.
It is enough for the field of competence of each company to be analysed correctly so that matching can be carried out.
For this, it is also essential to carry out sound organization and solid infrastructure work.
If we can spread the culture of joint work in this way, we have full confidence that we will reach our goals.
There is much that we can do in the defence industry; with our infrastructure and our production power, there is no obstacle before us to accomplishing many successful projects. As MÜSİAD business people, our determination, our faith and our energy increase with each passing day.
Because we have believed in a Türkiye that grows through national and domestic production; we have given our hearts to this cause.
Today we see tremendous enthusiasm and determination in all the companies, large and small, in a sector that presents a profile open to development and constantly in pursuit of innovation.
This is no different from the excitement we feel as MÜSİAD, from our wish to build the future of our Türkiye together.
Therefore, we know very well that we will achieve this only by joining our forces and by sharing our experience and our accumulated knowledge.
As MÜSİAD, as business people who reach every point of Türkiye and of the world, we make realistic assessments regarding sectors and the economy, and we evaluate them objectively.
Today, here, with the valuable contributions of Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün and Prof. Dr. Metin Yerebakan, we will share up-to-date information on the sector and listen to the problems of our sector representatives.
We see no harm in saying the following;
As in every sector, the defence sector too has a number of problems within its own operation.
As MÜSİAD, we work in order to contribute to the sector at the stage of identifying problems, analysing and reporting them correctly, and developing solution proposals.
In the report we have prepared, titled Domestic and National Defence Industry Problems and Solution Proposals, the identification of the problems and our solution proposals are set out.
The report, which we consider important in that it presents the general picture, was prepared taking into account all the stakeholders of the sector, and it was shared by us with the relevant parties.
Distinguished Guests,
As I conclude my remarks here, I thank everyone who contributed to the realization of this organization, above all the Chairman of the Board and General Manager of ASELSAN, Honourable Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün, the Chairman of the Board of Teknopark İstanbul, Metin Yerebakan, and the Chairman of our MÜSİAD Defence Industry Partnerships Committee, Yasir Bayramoğlu, and I respectfully greet you all.
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD