Head of the Presidential Defense Industry İsmail Demir announced that they will implement approximately 8 billion Turkish lira investment in defense industry in the earthquake zone. During his speech at the meeting organized by the Kahramanmaraş Chamber of Commerce and Industry with Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirişci, Demir expressed his condolences to those who lost their lives in the earthquake.
Demir stated that despite experiencing a great disaster, efforts were made to rise stronger, emphasizing that almost every institution of the state actively conducted works on various issues in the region.
Demir, who stated that their institution has been actively involved in the region since the first day, said:
"The dispersion of our defense industry to various parts of Anatolia is one of our strategies. This is an important strategy for us. In this sense, we have created a strategy to make investments with our companies starting from the region, to create settlement areas next to the investment areas where they invest in their employees. We will implement this in various parts of the earthquake zone. We started from Kahramanmaraş first because we saw that we could quickly implement it and both our TUSAŞ company and Kahramanmaraş companies could move very quickly. Therefore, an investment will be made to produce various aircraft parts with our TUSAŞ company in Kahramanmaraş in the first stage. The housing donations we have determined will already be made. But these investments will not be donations, they will be investments made within the framework of their own business plans."
Demir, who stated that they are planning to employ up to 500 people for Kahramanmaras, said "Of course, if our industrialists draw a different spectrum, it is possible for this number to increase. We also expect the investment to reach 1 billion Turkish liras, and of course, we also expect this number to increase later on."
Demir announced that they will take action today to establish a facility in the İslahiye and Nurdağı districts of Gaziantep for carbon fiber production related to TUSAŞ. He also stated that there will be some investments in the field of information technology in the region by the company Pavo and that they will visit Malatya, Elazığ, Adıyaman, and Osmaniye later to review the investment situations in these cities.
Demir said, "When we add up all the investments in these cities, we have a portfolio of approximately 8 billion Turkish liras in our hands. Hopefully, we will realize this step by step. Our companies, TUSAŞ, ROKETSAN, ASELSAN, and HAVELSAN, as well as private sector companies, will also contribute."
Demir expressed that they will all together heal the wounds in the earthquake zone and lift the region up much stronger.
Employment condition for disaster victims
In his statement following Minister Kirişci's speech, Ismail Demir emphasized that as the local people take ownership of these projects, the efforts will grow even more. He continued by saying,
"There will be employment conditions for these investments, works, and efforts that will be made. It will definitely be from the region. There will be restrictions such as being a disaster victim in the beginning. They must be from the region. The first plan is that there must be one person from each family who is a disaster victim. A question arises about whether we can find qualified people for the high-tech investments in the region. When they ask, 'What if you cannot find qualified people in the region?' we say, 'No problem.' Let's say we start with 50-100 people in the first place. We are planning for 100 people now. We will start their necessary training. For example, we will take these people to TUSAŞ, and we will provide them with the necessary training, whether it takes 6 months or a year. We will bring them back and employ them here. This applies to all of our companies. 'Not being able to find qualified people in the region' is not an excuse. I firmly believe that we will find capable people at the core because there are capable people in every region. If they do not have the necessary training for the job, we can bring them up to speed in six months or a year."
Ismail Demir highlighted the successful work of TUSAŞ and mentioned that they currently do not have a civilian aircraft in the field of civil aviation. He stated that although there are helicopters and airplanes used by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, there is no single airplane produced in the country for amateur aviation or sports aviation. Demir emphasized that it is possible for a company that produces planes like Kaan, Hürjet, and Hürkuş, not to be able to produce a single-engine, propeller airplane. He mentioned that if the people in Kahramanmaraş roll up their sleeves and say "We can also produce this plane," then the way is open. He also stated that similar conditions will be applied for other investments.
Demir, who announced the start of personnel recruitment for the facilities in question, added the following:
"The criteria have started to be published on the Kahramanmaraş Chamber of Commerce website. Our criteria are initially quite narrow and focused on the needs. But they will expand later. We have a program called 'kalfa' (apprentice). We have customized it for earthquake victims. With this program, we identify the talents of our young people who have completed their education. We pair them with a master or senior member of our large companies. For 3-4 years, that young person learns about that field of work under the guidance of their mentor, receiving further education beyond what they learned in university. We used to select apprentices for the program from the general population, but with the 'kalfa depremzede' program, we will integrate these young people into the program more quickly with similar criteria, including the condition of being an earthquake victim and being from the region."
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