Improving Competition in Denizli Machinery Sector… The Project “Improving the Competition in Machinery Sector” continues under the consultancy of TEPAV.

21/01/2014 - Viewed 1538 times DENİZLİ - The final meeting of the Denizli need assessment phase of the Project “Improving Competition in Machinery Sector”, consultancy of which was made by TEPAV, was held at Denizli Chamber of Industry on January 16, 2014.

During his speech, Ozan Acar, TEPAV Project Manager, shared the results of the study which identified the needs of 12 machinery manufacturers from Denizli to enhance their competitiveness. After an assessment on the socioeconomics of Denizli, Acar drew attention to the decreasing share of TR-32 Region in the total value-added of Turkey and of industry sector in the total output of the region. Stating that this decline was the sign of constraints in competitive capacity of industrial firms in the area, Acar indicated that the support schemes in the Declaration on Supporting the Development of International Competitiveness (Uluslararası Rekabetçiliğin Geliştirilmesinin Desteklenmesi Hakkında Tebliğ – UR-GE) were designed to contribute to overcoming competitive constraints of firms involved in the project. Highlighting the problems in firms’ R&D, innovation, provision, sales/marketing and services activities, Acar indicated that external marketing, consultancy, and training activities to be organized as per UR-GE under the leadership of Denizli Chamber of Industry would contribute to overcoming these.

During her speech, Zeren Gerelioğlu, Secretary General of Denizli Chamber of Industry, said that their objective was to help firms open up to foreign markets through this Project supported by Denizli Chamber of Industry.

Emrah Sazak, Head of SME and Cluster Support Department of the Ministry of Economy expressed that the key aim of the UR-GE Declaration was to support building sectoral partnerships under the leadership of cooperation agencies, and hence to improve global competitive capacity of firms. Sazak emphasized that all projects sponsored under UR-GE were carried out with the leadership of chambers, exporters associations, and sectoral associations, and had sectoral and regional dimensions.

In the afternoon session of the meeting, activities that would be applied in the next 3 years in order to remove weaknesses underlined in the needs assessment were planned. The stakeholders decided to take consultancy services in productivity measurement, production planning and budgeting, and transition to lean manufacturing and cost accounting systems. Another foreseen activity was to get training from successful machinery manufacturers of the sector’s pioneer countries such as Germany and Italy. It was decided to determine target countries and the ways to develop relations with customers in these countries. Carrying out a marketing trip to the target countries with participation of representatives of companies was another projected activity.

The Project

The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) carries out The Project for Improving the Competition in Machinery Sector in order to enhance the competitive position of the Turkish machinery sector in global markets. The objective of the Project is to determine the needs of about 200 machinery manufacturers to be more competitive. The Project is supported in the context of the Declaration on Supporting the Development of International Competitiveness (UR-GE) of the Ministry of Economy. The chambers of industry and/or commerce in Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Denizli, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Gebze, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya and Tekirdağ are the beneficiaries of the project. The consultancy of project is carried out by TEPAV.