Page 8 - SAHA EXPO 2024 - DAY 1

In the last 20 years, we have greatly reduced
MESSAGE foreign dependency and moved from being a
country that consumes high technology to a
country that produces it. Today, we produce
unmanned aerial and naval vehicles and
warships that attract attention worldwide,
and we offer many products with significant
capabilities to the global market.

While the turnover of our defence and aero-
space industry was around 1 billion dollars
in 2002, we have seen this figure reach
12 billion dollars in 2023. Likewise, our
export figures as a country are constantly
increasing. In 2023, our defence industry
exports reached 5.5 billion dollars, and in
2024, we aim to increase this success even
further and exceed the target of 6 billion
dollars. The dynamism and bold, innovative
strategies of our companies continue to
strengthen and enhance our sector.

The SAHA EXPO International Defence &
Aerospace Industry Exhibition has been
held since 2018, under the auspices of
the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye,
with the support of the Ministry of National
Defence and other relevant ministries and
the Secretariat of Defence Industries. This
year, we are preparing to bring together
more than 1200 domestic and international
companies and many official and commer-
“Rule the Technology, cial delegations from all corners of the
world. This year, with the theme of ‘Rule
the Technology, Shape the Future’, we are
Shape the Future” hosting exhibitors and visitors in an area of
90 thousand square metres.

Serving as an international platform to
showcase Türkiye’s rising defence and
- Haluk Bayraktar, CEO of SAHA Istanbul aerospace production potential and inde-
pendent production power, our exhibition
Established nine years ago to ensure the only come to the forefront, but also have a features many high-tech products of the
involvement and integration of private sec- solid economic structure through exports. defence, aerospace, maritime and space
tor dynamism in the defence industry in industries. We will provide the opportunity
Türkiye, SAHA Istanbul has progressively Countries that catch up with the rapid ad- for our companies producing these prod-
expanded to become the largest industrial vances in technology are making great gains ucts to meet with international exhibitors,
cluster in both Türkiye and Europe. Our not only in the military field but also in the official and commercial delegations. We
cluster, which aims to spark collaboration economic sense. Recent regional conflicts see this event not only as a fair, but also
between the public and private sectors, and crises have once again demonstrated as a meeting where all stakeholders of the
as well as academia, continues to strive how critical national defence capacity is. global ecosystem come together and share
towards its goals of fostering cooperation High and innovative technologies are no the latest technologies with B2B and G2G
in the defence industry, financial efficiency, longer just an option but have become meetings.
sustainability, synergy, export, and training. the cornerstones of our independence and
strategic strength. Finally, we are extending our exhibition
The defence and aerospace industry is an from four days to five days this year, and
ecosystem shaped by its own unique dy- With the strength we derive from the nation- the public days to two days, Friday and
namics. Today, with the introduction of new alisation vision that we have strongly imple- Saturday. This year, we expect more than
technologies into the field, we see that both mented, we are experiencing an important 150,000 guests.
defence concepts and the elements that breakthrough process for full independence
constitute security are constantly evolving. in the defence and aerospace sectors where (Haluk Bayraktar is also the CEO of Baykar
Countries that develop new technologies not high technology development is essential. Defense)

8 OCTOBER-22-2024 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/DAILY NEWS