Namık Kemal University hosted two important textile events in Çorlu. Bringing together the industry and academia, the ICONTEX2019 and ICONWOOLF2019 Congresses were held in succession on 17-18 and 19 April.
Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Çorlu Engineering Faculty Textile Engineering Department organized two congresses in succession and brought together textile professionals and academia. 2nd International Congress of Innovative Textiles (ICONTEX2019) on 17-18 April and International Congress on Wool and Luxury Fibers (ICONWOOLF2019) on 19 April received support from important institutions and organizations of the industry.
With the main sponsorship of YÜNSA and opening with an intense participation, the congress encompassed more than 90 speech and more than 30 presentations from 12 countries. Approximately 25% of these presentations were delivered by R&D and Design Centers. In addition to important presentations on the technical developments in congresses, industry professionals also had the opportunity to share their experiences and know-how.
ICONTEX2019 – Ahmet Şişman; “Industry supports innovation”
Speaking at the ICONTEX2019 congress, Ahmet Şişman, Vice President of Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (İTHİB); “As an industry, we attach great importance to education, technology, innovation and investment. There is a development of university-industry cooperation on the basis of achieving the targets set in textile, as there is in every industry”.
Saying that Turkey’s exports increased at a rate of 505% since 2000, Şişman noted that the industry contributed greatly to the Turkish economy through exports. Şişman said; “We are Turkey’s second largest highest amount of exports industry. Turkish exports is 0.9 percent share of world exports. Our ready-to-wear and garment exports share in world exports is 3,2 percent, while textiles and raw materials of our industry is 3.1 percent share of world exports. Our industries are exporting to 197 countries with more than 17 thousand exporters. We are making a serious contribution to the country’s employment with 938 thousand people”.
Vehbi Canpolat: “We are in world top 3 with 28 billion dollars of export”
Turkish Textile and Finishing Industrialists Association (TTTSD) Chairman Vehbi Canpolat said in his speech that Turkey and Çorlu have a very important position in the textile industry. Canpolat; “Today, in the world where we are in the seventh place with 28 billion dollars of exports, if we aim to enter the top three with over 50 billion dollars of exports per year, we should do a lot more different things. If we try to count them: we can collect under the headings such as eco-friendly production and product, sustainable production and product and renewable production and product which is the main theme of the congress here today”.
Canpolat touched the subject of what needs to be done in order to reach the export target and stated that it is important to meet the needs with innovations and branding. Canpolat stated that the balances in the world have changed; “The world is now trying to shift production and purchase from the Far East to the regions closer to their geographic regions. We openly see this. I want to emphasize when we talk to the buyers in the Far East and in Europe, and the buyers of the world, they want to buy from places closer to their geography”.
Adil Nalbant; “We are the 4th biggest market for the textile machinery manufacturers”
Textile Machinery and Accessories Industrialists’ Association (TEMSAD) President Adil Nalbant recalled that the world machinery industry is a 2 trillion dollars’ worth industry; and the textile machinery industry has a share of 28 billion dollars. Nalbant underlined that textile producing countries must meet their textile machinery needs, and continued saying;
“We are the world’s 4th biggest market in textile machinery. First, China buys 5 billion dollars’ worth of machines every year; sells machines for 5 billion dollars, they took over Germany and continues to open the gap. The second is Germany in exports but America in imports. America is the world’s 2nd largest textile machinery buyer. Third is India, subject to India is 15 times of Turkey with its population of 1.2 billion; and it is very normal for them to be the 3rd.”
“But India has a self-containing cycle where they are manufacturing spinning machines or weaving machine. But they still buy 2.5 billion dollars’ worth of machine a year. In fourth place is Turkey and we get 1 billion 900 million dollars’ worth of machines last year. If we didn’t have an exchange crisis in June 10th last year; we would have imported 2 or 2.5 billion dollars in imports”.
At the ICONWOOLF2019 congress on April 19, wool and luxury fibers were discussed. YÜNSA and Çorlu Municipality were the main sponsors of this congress.