interview with Mr. Necip G Ù€ Ney ,Director of Sales and Marketing.
Turkey is making itself known as an influential symbol of textile industry in the region and the world. In 2009 Turkey is hosting a great textile event in the world, and for this very issue Kohan Journal has arranged an interview with Mr. Necip G ـ Ney (Director of Sales and Marketing) Here, you are going to read the part of our interview.
Please explain about qualification and lastest news of ITMÂ exhibition.
As you know ITM Exhibitions covers all technologies used in textile production such as spinning, weaving, knitting, finishing, nonwovens, printing and dyeing. Domestic and international technology producers exhibit their latest machineries in this exhibition. ITM Exhibitions are especially dedicated to Middle East and Balkans, that’s why it is the sole and the best in its field. I would like to inform you about recent developments of the exhibition. The sales which started on January 2008 have already resulted in a sale proportion of 85% in the Weaving Halls, 65 % in the Spinning Halls and %50 in the Flat and Circular Knitting Machinery Halls. And as Halls dedicated to the Dyeing-Printing-Finishing and Textile Chemicals are already over quota. We assume that the sales will be finalized within the first months of the new year. But we believe that there will be more and more applicants. ITM Project Team is working on a solution to create additional spaces for new enrollees.
Indeed ITM is the best exhibition in 2009. what is your policy and plan for fair performance with most quality and quantity ?
Success is a must for us because the future of the textile industry will be determined in this exhibition, as well as increasing the bussiness activities. We all know the problems created due to the global economic crisis. All investments in all fields have been postponed, production decreased as people are keeping their money due to the ambiguity in the economy. This is the same case in the textile industry resulting in a recession period. But there are assumptions that this recession will end in the year 2009 and postponed investments will be on the agendas. So we can conclude that this period can be started on 6-10 June 2009 at ITM 2009. Our visitor promotions are worldwide.We were recently in China and our next stops will be Syria, Arjantina and India for November 2009, then Russia, Pakistan and Germany. We are in close contacts with industry professionals for visitor promotion both domestic and international.
As you know most of textile machinery manufacturer has changed the plan and now they produce this kind of machinery in Asia including Turkey. Do you agree that in future ITM will be the main textile fair insetd of I.T.M.A ?
Some of the Turkish machinery manufactures have production for Asia but I do not believ that Turkish machinery manufactures have production in Asia. A few yarn producers companies built plants to Far East as the labor force and energy is cheap but investments and production in Turkey still continue.  There is no doubt that ITM can compete with ITMA in the future. ITM Exhibitions have always completed their missions since 2004. ITMA is organized by CEMATEX and this makes ITMA participation a must for CEMATEX members. When the capital of textile was Europe, ITMA was very attractive, sole and the best. But now textile is divided to regions: Middle East and Balkans, Europe, America and Far East. Each region do bussiness within their own region and they all have their own exhibitions. For example a Turkish investor would not prefer to buy a machine from an exhibition organized in Spain or China as costumer would not like to sustain the transport expenditure. The machineries in Far East are mainly for synthetic fabrics but production in Turkey is cotton mainly. As a result exhibitions in textile Technologies will be local and the best in their regions. ITM exhibitions covers Middle East and East Europe and is the largest in the region. ITMA exhibitions are organized as a tradition. If ITMA organized every 4 year had been enough then they would not organize ITMA ASIA in China. So ITM and ITMA are not competitors but exhibitions completing each other.
Do you think that Turkey has enough qualification and ability to fulfill the motto “TEXTILE EXHIBITION IN A TEXTILE MANUFACTURING COUNTRY”.
Yes we do. Turkey has everything for textile and international exhibitions. Turkey is a textile country because the majority of the investment and exports are in textile industry. Although cheap prices of Far East and then the global economic crisis effected the Turkish Textile manufacturers, the industry will return to its recent situation very soon. The demand for cheap Chinese products decreased and the demand moved to Turkish products due to their quality. Unfortunately the global economic crisis aroused just at a period that the demands increased. When the crisis is over, then Turkish textile manufacturers will have a peace of mind. Referring to the figures of investment and an employment of 20.000.000, 40% of export rate and so on, disccussing whether Turkey is a textile country or not is unnecessary.
What is your opinion about the efficacy of universal economy and pecuniary tensions for ITM?
I do not think that the tensions will affect ITM too much as the crisis is global and every country is facing problems. Consequently it is not a case that Turkey will be directly affected by the crisis. Our sales are good. The sole problem is that due to the recession some of our exhibitors can not determine their spaces. Some of them have confirmed their booths but keep asking if it would be possible to enlarge their booths depending on the orders their receive. So our main problem is the ambiguity. Our target markets are Middle East and East Europe, which were the ones less affected by the crisis. So we believe that ITM 2009 will be an opportunity for everyone. If ITM had been organized in 2008 it would have been effected by the crisis like ITMA ASIA.
As you know ITM was supposed to be organized every two years but ITM 2008 was postponed to 2009 because of coinciding with ITMA ASIA. Now what is your plan for coinciding the ITM 2011 with I.T.M.A BARCELONA 2011?
We have not determined a date for the next ITM. We shifted the dates to 2009 just because ITMA ASIA organizers requested. After ITM 2009 we will announce the dates for the next edition. As I previously mentioned ITMA and ITM exhibitions are complemantary exhibitions, not competitors. Most probably the dates will be decided upon the feedbacks of our exhibitors.
