The Wind of Change in the Top Ranks of the Textile Industry – New management and presidents were appointed by the elections held in the unions representing the export side of the Turkish textile industry.
New names have been elected for the executive boards and chairs of important export associations of the Turkish textile industry. There was a wind of change in the association elections. The newly elected presidents have underlined the importance of the textile and ready-to-wear industries for the country’s economy and expressed their willingness to further increase power of the export.
Uludağ Textile Exporters’ Association (UTİB) General Assembly elected Pınar Taşdelen Engin as their new chairman. Taking over from previous chairman İbrahim Burkay; Engin also won the title of the first woman association chairman in the industry. Pınar Taşdelen Engin, who received all of the 77 votes in a single list election; “I worked for 8 years in the executive board of UTİB and 4 years as vice president. Therefore, I know the problems of the industry and its objectives closely. We will continue to work for the industry with all our strength as we did before.”
Engin reminded that the Turkish textile industry closed 2017 with $ 8.1 billion exports and continued her words saying; “The 1.2 billion dollars of these exports were made by UTİB member companies. We will speed up the process in the new period by especially working on increasing the exports of high value added products, and increase the export figures of UTİB to 1.6 billion dollars level.”
The Wind of Change in the Top Ranks of the Textile Industry: Ahmet Öksüz is the new chairman of İTHİB
Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (İTHİB) will continue its path in the new period under the chairmanship of Ahmet Öksüz. İsmail Gülle, who has been the long-time chairman of İTHİB, will serve as the Vice President in the new board of directors. New Chairman Ahmet Öksüz said in his statement that they would solve common problems with common sense.
Entering the election with a single list and winning the chairmanship in İTHİB General Assembly, Öksüz said; “I have been working in export associations for 20 years. We are working in the most dynamic industry of Turkey. We are one of the sectors that gives the most foreign trade surplus. Our aim is to solve the problems with consultation by increasing cooperation. We aim to create common solutions to common problems.”
Mustafa Gültepe elected as the new chairman of İHKİB
Mustafa Gültepe sat in the Chairman chair at the Istanbul Apparel Exporters’ Association (İHKİB). Gültepe, who was joined the elections as the sole candidate and will be running the chairmanship of İHKİB for 4 years, thanked the former president Hikmet Tanrıverdi for his contribution to the apparel industry.
Advocating a spring breeze in the industry, Gültepe continued his words as follows; “We have entered a cyclical turn of fortune. We had a very good start to 2018 after three hard years. We are up 11.4 percent in the first quarter compared to last year. We will speed up and try to further increase this rate higher.”
Aegean textile manufacturers chose Eskinazi as chairman
Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (ETHİB) chose Jak Eskinazi as the chairman of the board. Eskinazi, who was elected to the chairmanship in the general assembly, took over from Sabri Ünlütürk. Previously, Eskinazi was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association between 2003-2010.
Addressing the members of the general assembly, Jak Eskinazi recalled that the textile and apparel industries have a great importance for the Turkish economy and that the two industries had signed 25 billion dollars’ worth of exports in 2017. Eskinazi; “Exports of the textile industry increased by 3 percent in the whole country, and by 18 percent in our region compared to the previous year. Textile industry, which is one of the most important industry to create added value in Turkey, has completed 2017 as the European Union’s largest 2nd while 8th largest supplier of the world.”
Burak Sertbaş was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aegean Apparel and Ready-to-Wear Exporters Union.