Member companies of Istanbul Apparel Exporters’ Association (IHKIB), making 75 percent of the total exports of apparel and garment sector of Turkey, are awarded in gold, silver and platinum categories during 'Stars of the Exports' award ceremony.
During the ceremony where 2,236 companies are awarded, Mustafa Gültepe, Chairman of IHKIB, states they have brought net foreign monies up to 30 percent of the current account deficit of Turkey as the apparel sector in 2012. Emphasizing apparel and garment sector is way ahead in net foreign money return, Gültepe wants the digital transformation to be included in a special support cover in order for the apparel sector to reach its USD 60 billion.
Apparel Aims For The Digital Transformation
"We are looking forward to the support of the public authority to support us to become the leading industry in this area and expect the digital transformation to be covered by a special support", says Gültepe.
Stating IHKİB is a pioneer and source of inspiration in many fields, especially in vocational education and design, Gültepe further explains apparel and garment industry is among the sectors already ready for Industry 4.0. Suggesting the magic word of today and the new era is digitalisation, Gültepe continues as follows: In today's global trading world, where the rules of the game are being rewritten, there is little chance that the non-digitizing enterprises will have any chance of survival. In other words, if we want to protect our existing position in the world apparel trade and grow more and achieve $60 billion dollars, our companies need to digitise very fast. We have been observing this fact a long time ago and brought digitalisation to the agenda of our country and our industry. We would like to stress the fact that digital transformation means higher value added exports for our sector and will bring more foreign money and contribute to the closing the gap of the current account deficit for our country."
Apparel Export Increases By 9.8 Percent
Assessing the exports for the first 5 months in apparel, Mustafa Gültepe reports exports in January-May period increased by 9.8 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Gültepe also adds the current trend will continue and 2018 is likely to be closed with exports around USD 19 billion.
Suggesting the fact that although Turkey is the fifth largest apparel supplier of the world, it does not received the credits it deserves, Gültepe says Turkey's share in the global trade with around USD 500 billion worth is 3,4 percent. "We don't think our global market share is enough for us. We have changed our game plan with 'Apparel Vision Certificate' prepared last year for our export goal of 60 billion dollars we would like to achieve in the medium term. We put our thorough action plan, prepared in the light of our new vision, into practice in April, following our start in business. We have given priority to the 4 basic actions included in our action plan as a roadmap to help the sector to achieve its targets. Should there is no production, then there is no export, and there is no foreign exchange coming if there is no export, thus, overall, there is no growth. We will establish production bases all over the Anatolia. We will make our beautiful Istanbul one of the major fashion centres of the world. "
2,236 Companies Awarded
58 companies achieving export over USD 50 million are awarded platinum while 70 companies achieving export up to USD 25 to 50 million are awarded gold and 509 companies achieving export up to USD 5 to 25 million are awarded silver awards, which makes up a total of 2,236 awarded companies. Making 75 percent of the total exports of apparel and garment sector of Turkey, there are more than 11,500 members of IHKIB.
