The opening speeches of the conference held at JW Marriott Hotel Ankara were made by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay, Head of the Global Connectivity, Inclusive Growth and Green Development Department of the EU Delegation to Turkey Valentina Di Sebastiano, and Ministry of Industry and Technology General Director of EU and Foreign Relations and Head of the Program Authority Ahmet Halit Hatip.
Bozay emphasized that competition increased even more during the period when turmoil increased around the world.
Pointing out that the EU should work more closely with Türkiye among countries such as the USA and China, Bozay said, "This will only be achieved by carrying such programs further." he said.
Bozay said, "I would like to emphasize that it is very important to preserve the current structure of Turkey-EU financial cooperation, preserve our IPA gains and support our accession process in a sustainable manner, and it is vital for us to support these projects." he said.
"The EU and Türkiye have a lot to gain from working together"
Di Sebastiano also stated that they celebrated the Turkey-EU cooperation and said, "We have many common goals, improving industrial competitiveness, encouraging research and development and ensuring that our economic growth is smart, sustainable, inclusive and green." he said.
Stating that the EU-Türkiye economies are connected, Di Sebastiano said, "Working together helps us in many ways. It strengthens our resilience. It enables us to seize new opportunities." he said.
Di Sebastiano: "The EU and Türkiye have a lot to gain from working together." he said.
Digital transformation of the industry is accelerating
Ahmet Halit Hatip, General Director of European Union and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, stated that the biggest gain of the program was the "multiplier effect" and explained that they supported the development of domestic vaccine and drug candidates by activating the opportunities of the program during the Covid-19 pandemic period, and that they repaired the infrastructures damaged in the February 6 earthquakes.
Emphasizing that financing approaches also improved during this period, Hatip said, "The supply chains project we carried out with EBRD is one of the best examples of this. We managed to mobilize a financing of 170 million euros through the 17 million euro IPA grant. We achieved these successes in close cooperation with the European Union Delegation." he said.
Hatip underlined that investment will reach its real goal when it turns into permanent economic and social benefit, and said that their goal is to transform innovation into a socioeconomic power.
For this reason, Hatip emphasized that they do not see the IPA II period as an end point and said:
"The centers we have established will continue to operate. The capacity we have created will grow. It will be further strengthened with the platforms we have established and the success-oriented supports we provide. Now, we have a new era ahead of us. The two main priorities of this period are very clear, digital transformation and green transformation. We are accelerating the digital transformation of our manufacturing industry within the scope of IPA III. We are bringing digital transformation to our 300 businesses. We are implementing this by taking advantage of the capacity of the centers we have previously established. As for green transformation, we are taking much bigger steps in Türkiye's Green Deal Action Plan." We take responsibility because we know that the industry of the future will not only be one that produces more, produces more cleanly and competes more strongly with the world, and Turkey is determined to be one of the strong actors of this transformation. Therefore, the strengthening of the Turkish industry also means the strengthening of Europe. We must protect and further strengthen the institutional capacity and mutual trust we have built in 20 years. Because this capacity is the guarantee of not only our past successes, but also our common successes in the future. "It is ready for the new era with its strong institutions and qualified human resources."
