Ankara Industrial Cooperation Days in Defence and Aerospace (ICDDA), organised by OSSA, opens its doors at ATO Congresium in Ankara. ICDDA, a platform organised by the esteemed Ostim Defence and Aviation Cluster Association (OSSA), has kicked off in Ankara. The event boasts the participation of industry giants such as AIRBUS, BOEING, LEONARDO, THY, TÜRKSAT, ASELSAN, HAVELSAN, ROKETSAN, FNSS, TUSAŞ, TEI, who will showcase their products. ICDDA is a strategic initiative by OSSA, designed to facilitate supply chain-oriented cooperation and create lucrative business opportunities for manufacturers and buyers. The event serves as a dynamic platform for manufacturers and suppliers to connect and collaborate.
The opening speeches of the three-day event were made by the Secretary of Defence Industries, Professor Haluk Görgün, OSSA Chairman of the Board of Directors İbrahim Yarsan, OSTİM OSB Chairman of the Board of Directors Orhan Aydın, ATO Chairman of the Board of Directors Gürsel Baran, ASO Chairman of the Board of Directors Seyit Ardıç. SSB Secretary Görgün stated that Turkiye has made important progress in the defence industry.
Stating that Türkiye’s defence and aerospace industry continues to grow with an average of 20 per cent increase in exports every year, Görgün said, “Our defence industry meets the needs of our country with the platforms it has developed in all areas, including land, sea, air and even space, while also meeting the needs of our friendly and has turned into an industry that can meet the needs of the armies of allied countries. In the field of defence, Turkiye has ceased to be a market and has become a country making a name for itself with its internationally competitive technological products. The sector’s development in recent years has enabled our companies’ capabilities in many areas, such as platforms, systems, subsystems and payloads, to become in demand in foreign markets.” Stating that, as the Secretary, they have adopted the philosophy of export-based international cooperation, Görgün said, “We organize international activities for both our SMEs and our main integrator companies. We started to see the benefits of these activities in the first quarter of the year. When we evaluate the first three months, I can say that our growth momentum has entered a much more positive process. We closed last year with exports of 5.5 billion dollars, but we signed a new contract worth 10.2 billion dollars. This year, with the efforts of our companies, we will meet the needs of friendly and allied countries; “We will achieve much better figures to create a sustainable defence industry.” Noting that the importance of unity in the sector is understood considering the product diversity and export figures that Turkiye exports in the defence and aerospace industry, Görgün said, “We have noted nine international fairs, seven national fairs and events, an NGO event and 18 institutional events in our agenda for 2024. It aims to hold 55 country representatives and 7,500 B2B meetings at the ICDDA meeting. In addition, nearly 20 cooperation agreements will be signed. In this context, this event is very important in revealing business and investment opportunities in our country. We will continue to support future meetings.” The first event of the ICDDA meeting was the session “The Place of SMEs in the International Aviation and Space Sector”. TUSAŞ Procurement and Industrialization President Serdar Özpolat moderated the session. Airbus International Cooperation Senior Director Thierry Ader, Boeing Turkiye General Manager Ayşem Sargın, Leonardo Turkiye General Manager Paolo Maria Sebastiani, THY Deputy General Manager Levent Konukcu and Türksat Deputy General Manager Dr. Selman Demire l took part as a speaker. Moderated by SSB Industrialization Department Head Murat Çizgel; ASELSAN Deputy General Manager of Supply Chain Management Nuh Yılmaz; HAVELSAN Corporate Deputy General Manager Semih Demirtoka, Roketsan Strategy, Marketing and Business Development Deputy General Manager Murat Kurtuluş, TEI Finance and Supply Deputy General Manager İbrahim attended the session “The Impact of Supply Chain Method on Exports for Sustainability”. Emre Saylan and TUSAŞ Aviation Structural Deputy General Manager Professor Fahrettin Öztürk participated as a speaker.
