Reminding that they held the “Construction Summit Türkiye” with the support of the Ministry of Commerce, Eren said that in this context, they brought together the sector components and discussed strategic goals.
Eren pointed out that there is a process of change in the world and stated that issues such as digitalization, artificial intelligence and production technologies have started to be used in the construction sector, and that they discussed these issues at the summit.
Emphasizing that the participation in the event was above expectations, Eren said, “There was really such an expectation in the industry. 82 material manufacturers and suppliers opened stands. We had 13 panels in two days. Our university professors, scientists, representatives of the sector, doyens came and discussed their ideas and speeches were made. More importantly, first our Ministry of Commerce and then other institutions of our state supported how important this operation was.” he said.
“SOME OF OUR MEMBERS DID NOT LEAVE UKRAINE EVEN IN WAR TIME”
Eren pointed out that they were trying to get out of the Russian, Ukrainian and Middle Eastern markets dominated by TMB contractors due to wars and conflict environments, and said, “Our goal was to expand to Africa, but we achieved something more important, we first started from the Balkans, then Eastern Europe, now we have started to do business in almost all of Europe.” he said.
Pointing out that Turkish contractors will also have important duties in the revival process of Ukraine if the Russia-Ukraine War ends, Eren made the following assessment:
“We expect the Russia-Ukraine War to end auspiciously. It seems like it will end this year, political developments seem to do so. Our country has also made great efforts in this regard. When the war is over, we expect the Ukrainians to call us for almost all their work, based on our cooperation in the work we have done with them so far. As a matter of fact, some of our members did not leave Ukraine even during the war. They went and built the collapsed bridges of Ukraine immediately.”
“WE WANT TO BUILD A BRIDGE FROM HEART TO HEART”
Pointing out that Syria was completely destroyed by the civil war, Eren said, “They have great needs. About 2 months ago, Syrian Minister of Economy and Industry Muhammed Nidal al-Shaar came to the Syria-Turkey Joint Forum in Istanbul. He informed me through the Ministry of Commerce that he wanted to meet me privately. They intensely said that they expected us from Türkiye to go there and take a role in the reconstruction of Syria.” he said.
Emphasizing that the Turkish flag flies at construction sites in various countries of the world, Eren said:
“This is not just about making money, etc. This is also very important in terms of establishing people-to-people relations between those countries and Turkey. One of the slogans we use the most as TMB is that our goal is not to build bridges from coast to coast, we want to build bridges from heart to heart between people from country to country. This is an important feature of us.”
