Board Chairman of Istanbul Mineral Exporters’ Association (IMIB), Ali Kahyaoğlu raised concerns about the low share levels of Turkey, attained from world’s natural stone exports and said: “We are willing to exceed the export level which we have attained three years ago with 2,2 billion dollars along with new projects that will allow us to set foot in every part of the world in 2017.” Ali Kahyaoğlu stated that they will introduce Turkish natural stones to the world along with a budget of 40 million Turkish Liras in 2017 and they have declared 2017, “The year of promoting Turkish natural stones”. Kahyaoğlu said: “Along with the mobile app that will go live in a month, any architect in the world is going to be able to scan the stone sample with their phones and contact with the manufacturer of the stone in Turkey.”
Bülent Tatlıcan
Istanbul Mineral Expor ters’ Association (IMIB) will introduce Turkish natural stones to the world with a budget of 40 million Turkish Liras. IMIB declared 2017, “The year of promoting Turkish natural stones” and it aims to exceed 2,2 billion dollars by setting foot in every market of the world within the scope of the year. IMIB has organized a press release within the context of evaluations about this year’s natural stone industry and 2017 objectives. The event was attended by Ali Kahyaoğlu, the Board Chairman of IMIB; Ersoy Erol, the President of Turkish Mineral-Marble Foundation; Akın Gölcük, Mustafa Selçuk Çevik, Beyazıt Özcan, Yakup Kadri Sürmen from the administrative board of IMMIB; S. Armağan Vurdu, the secretary-general of IMMIB and many representatives of the industry.
Ali Kahyaoğlu, the Board Chairman of IMIB, remarked that while world’s natural stone export levels were nearly 20 billion dollars in 2013, this level has reached up to 22 billion dollars by now and Turkey doesn’t meet even 10% of this number. Kahyaoğlu said: “We have to sell 25% of the world’s natural stones. We aim to reach 6 billion dollars of export levels by 2023.” Reminding that the natural s tone expor ts have peaked with 2,2 billion dollars in 2013, Ali Kahyaoğlu informed: “We want to exceed 2,2 billion dollars in 2017 and we will do so by realizing our new projects. There is a great deal of capital in the world. We aim to set foot in every part of the world with the help of our projects. We will determine locations that many of us haven’t been to yet and we are going to be there.”
The Year 2017 Has Been Declared As The Year Of Turkish Natural Stones
Ali Kahyaoğlu said that they will introduce Turkish natural stones to the world along with a budget of 40 million Turkish Liras in 2017 and within this sense, they have declared 2017, “The year of promoting Turkish natural stones”. Emphasizing on the fact that they will realize a series of projects both at home and abroad for this exact promotion, Kahyaoğlu said: “We will organize Turkish Cooperation Summit for three editions with China, having the largest share in world’s natural stone impor tations, and India. We will attend fairs in China, US, Australia, Qatar, Brazil, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Canada and France. We will also organize commercial committee visits for these countries. We have a project again for China, India and United Arab Emirates in order to establish the Trade Centers of Turkey. We will exhibit our products in Milan Design Week. In August, we are going to host 400 foreign procurement committees in Turkey. We are carrying out 6 R&D projects this year. By 2017, we will increase this level to 10 projects. Turkish Natural Stone Book will be prepared by using all the data in our database and at the same time, Turkish Natural Stone Libraries will be established in order to provide easy usage for all the natural stones to be used efficiently in the related 3D modeling softwares. From now on, we will publish 7 thousand copies of our Natura Magazine, which we send out to various mediums from Ministries to Governors, from the Directorates of Environment and Forestry to universities and district governorships, and send it to the headmen of villages which have potential and ongoing mining activities.”
Architects Will Be Connected To Turkish Natural Stones As Close As Their Phones
Addressing the mobile app which will go live in a month, Kahyaoğlu said: “Any architect in the world will have the opportunity to find the stone or the similar kind by merely scanning the stone code via their phones and contact with the manufacturer.” Stating that the mobile app classifies Turkish natural stones in colors, types, firms and locations, Kahyaoğlu indicated: “The app also includes a search engine and a menu consisting of dif ferent languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Italian, English and Turkish.”
IMIB Has Started Planting Works Spreading Over A Million Square- meters
Stating that they also launched planting works, Kahyaoğlu said: “We may have mistakes and deficiencies regarding environmentalist mining. We are working hard to overcome them. Within this framework, as IMIB, we launched a planting work that spreads over 1 million square-meters around quarries and their surroundings. Firms have to look af ter them, water them and send us photos. As IMIB, we will not hand out saplings and walk away. We will also track them.”
