Türkiye exports high-tech defense products to NATO: Erdoğan

ANKARA

While Türkiye exports a total of $248 million worth of defense products, the government plans to exceed that to $4 billion this year, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Dec. 12.

“We have turned from a country that needed foreigners into a country that sells high-tech products to NATO allies,” he said at the Innova-League Awards Ceremony.

Türkiye is among the top three-four countries in the world in the design, production and sales of unmanned aerial vehicles, and the country achieved all this not with the support, but despite the “open embargoes, threats, blackmail and pressure,” Erdoğan stated.

“The government has completely reversed the picture by working patiently, producing, and not giving up in the face of difficulties, public-private, all together, in an area where we were 70-80 percent foreign-dependent only 20 years ago,” the president stated.

Erdoğan underlined similar examples of success were experienced in many sectors from aviation to energy, from automotive to software and from banking to communication.

The Innovation Week, held under a different theme every year, demonstrates both Türkiye’s rich experience, know-how and potential, and the companies’ accomplishments often despite limited means, he said. “With every success story shared here, we witness once again the unyielding, steel will of our nation.”

Noting that Turkish companies overcame all the obstacles thanks to their conviction and persistently marched towards their goals, President Erdoğan said: “In fact, our country was not even on the map in many areas up until five to 10 years ago, but today, Turkish companies have reached an exemplary position, where they are referenced to and closely followed. Particularly, Türkiye has risen to the champions’ league in the defense industry.”

Türkiye got through the pandemic with minimum damage because of its strong healthcare and production infrastructure, Erdoğan said.

The country “did not stop the engine in its economy in those painful and difficult days when people could not get out of their homes due to restrictions, store shelves were empty for weeks in Western countries, even healthcare workers, let alone ordinary citizens, could not get masks, while production came to a halt in various locations due to the breakdowns in the supply chain,” he emphasized.

Türkiye kept adding new ones to its investments, including its mega projects, while even the Western countries paused their public investments, Erdoğan said.

“We have both encouraged and provided all kinds of support to our companies to keep producing, trading and providing jobs. Our companies, feeling the state’s support during their difficult days, have achieved praise-worthy accomplishments in turning the crisis into an opportunity by working, producing, finding new markets and developing new products. We see its positive effects on many fundamental data, including export numbers, growth and employment rates,” Erdoğan stated.

Türkiye is one of the few countries which have stably maintained its economic growth despite the pandemic and ranked first among the G20 countries with its growth rate of 11.4 percent last year, Erdoğan added.