Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacir said, “Our development speed shows that Turkiye will be the leading country in Europe in wind energy in the next 10 years and Izmir will be the leading city of this leadership process in Turkiye.”
In his speech at the Izmir Development Agency (IZKA) Projects Opening Ceremony held at the Izmir Economics Congress Building, Kacir said that they were happy to inaugurate 11 works and projects in Izmir.
Minister Kacir noted that they have issued 6 thousand 365 investment incentive certificates for fixed investments worth ₺751 billion in Izmir in the last 22 years and paved the way for more than 182 thousand qualified employment. “We brought 4 new organized zones and 3 industrial zones to Izmir, the city of production, industry and commerce. We created an additional 95 thousand jobs in our organized industrial zones. We established 4 technoparks, 100 R&D centers and 24 design centers in order to further advance value-added production and technology entrepreneurship in our city. We gave ₺22.8 billion of R&D incentives to the innovation-oriented projects of our entrepreneurs and industrialists.”
Kacir said that in addition to their efforts to popularize science and technology in Izmir, they registered 41 local flavors of Izmir, from tulum cheese to cereal, from olive oil to grapes, with geographical indications.
Kacir stated that they have provided ₺4 billion 700 million of support to a total of 671 projects of public institutions, local administrations, universities, private sector and non-governmental organizations in the city so far. In the program, he explained that they opened 11 works and services in Izmir, from domestic and renewable energy to women and youth employment, from technological infrastructure and equipment renewal works to green and blue transformation, from incubation centers to agricultural development.
Reminding that they established the Wind Energy Meteorology and Environmental Testing and Analysis Center in Izmir, which has become the production base in the wind energy sector in Turkiye, Kacir continued his words as follows:
“With these infrastructures we have established, we will together increase our localization rate in wind power plants to more than 60% in the coming period. We are one of the 5 most ambitious countries in Europe in this field, but our speed of development shows that Turkiye will be the leading country in Europe in wind energy in the next 10 years and Izmir will be the leading city of this leadership process in Turkiye. We aim to get a share from the approximately 300 gigawatt wind turbine demand that will occur in Europe in the next 20 years and to ensure that our domestic turbines are used in the 15 gigawatt wind turbine investments that will take place by 2035 in renewable energy investments, which are the main element of green transformation in our country.”
Noting that Izmir has not been able to mobilize its potential at the local level for many years, Kacir stated that Izmir, which has been neglected in local government, and the people of Izmir are longing for the work and service policy with the current administration.
Minister Kacir said that it is time for Izmir to get the services it deserves and said, “We are ready with our vision, goals, programs and candidates to solve the problems that have become gangrenous in our city for years, to make Izmir even more beautiful and to bring it to the level it deserves.
We believe that, hopefully, on March 31, Izmir will continue on its way with mayors who will choose investment, work and service politics, who will develop and grow our city and make it the shining star of the Turkish Century. The trust will be delivered to the competent person, and the lost years will be compensated for Izmir as soon as possible.”
Before the opening ceremony, Minister Kacir visited Izmir Governorship and met with Governor Elban.
Source: AA / Prepared by Irem Yildiz