A contract worth $6.2 billion was signed at the SAHA EXPO, which SAHA Istanbul organised.
SAHA Istanbul Defence and Aviation Cluster Board of Directors Haluk Bayraktar gave a speech at the ceremony held at SAHA EXPO. Emphasising that SAHA Istanbul was established to increase national production and bring critical technologies to Turkiye, Bayraktar said that they have reached more than 1200 members today on this path they set out on with 27 founding companies.
Bayraktar said, “More than 1400 companies participated in SAHA EXPO, which is one of the platforms where SAHA Istanbul is organised and where the National Technology Move is most visible. We hosted ministers from 24 countries from many different parts of the world. Procurement delegations from 50 countries contacted our companies. There was high-level participation from more than 120 countries.” Bayraktar, who pointed out that 200 new nationally developed products were introduced at SAHA EXPO, said, “In the 133 signing ceremonies we held at SAHA EXPO 2024, a total of 6.2 billion dollars worth of contracts, 4.6 billion dollars of which were exports, were signed in just four days. As SAHA Istanbul, we aim to continuously increase our country’s production capacity by carrying out sustainable and cost-effective projects with the dynamism of the private sector. Our defence exports, only 240 million dollars in 2001, reached 5.5 billion last year. The number of companies in our defence industry, which was only 17 in 2002, has exceeded 3500 today. These achievements are a result of our commitment to domestic and national technology. We managed to produce the national infantry rifle, which could not be produced in these lands for 150 years, only in 2014 with the vision of nationalisation.”
Bayraktar, who emphasised that national companies produce their own military ships, said that the projects they carry out are opening the doors to a new era in the defence industry, and said, “These are not only industrial successes, but also an indicator of our country’s competence, capability and capacity in this area. Our national defence industry is growing and getting stronger every year. While defence budgets are increasing worldwide, our country is reducing imports and strengthening its nationalisation vision through domestic production.”
