İKMİB Launches Rapid Localization Drive

The Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology announced a project at the beginning of November to produce imported intermediate products in Turkey, which constitute 67 percent of Turkey's export products. The Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association (İKMİB) is preparing to launch a localization initiative in the basic chemicals and sub-sectors. Having established a special committee for localization, İKMİB will meet with the Ministry of Industry in the near term with a localization committee that includes relevant officials from the Ministry of Industry, and will quickly implement its work. In the project launched by the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology to close Turkey's foreign trade deficit, five main sectors were identified: chemicals and pharmaceuticals, semiconductor electronic products, machinery and equipment, food industry, and motor vehicles. Categories were created for intermediate goods in these sectors to be produced directly in Turkey without importation. To contribute to identifying and localizing sub-products in the chemicals sector, which is among the sectors requiring priority production, İKMİB established a "Chemistry Sector Localization Sub-Committee." The committee is comprised of sector representatives from the relevant sub-segments of the chemicals industry, chaired by Murat Akyüz, Chairman of the İKMİB Board of Directors. Murat Akyüz, Chairman of the İKMİB Board of Directors, made the following statement on the matter: "The product localization project initiated by our government is a very important work that will contribute to exports and thus Turkey's growth. As İKMİB, we support this project. We have established a committee to identify localizable sub-products in the categories of petrochemical products, polymers, amino compounds, nanotechnology products and vaccines, which are the main headings in the chemicals and pharmaceutical industry. Our committee is composed of people representing the relevant sub-sectors of the chemicals industry, including relevant officials from the Ministry of Industry. We have held our first meeting on this matter. As a committee, we will present our work to the Ministry of Industry in the shortest possible time."