Mevlana Development Agency, continuing its work in the TR-52 Konya-Karaman Region under the coordination of the Ministry of Industry and Technology General Directorate of Development Agencies, organized Supplier Development Trainings for defense industry companies in cooperation with Konya Provincial Directorate of Industry and Technology, Konya Chamber of Industry, and Aselsan Konya.

The training program, hosted by Mevlana Development Agency, continued the efforts initiated under the "Increasing Our Strength Project (GAP)" led by Aselsan Konya, with the main objective of accelerating and developing the adaptation of Konya industrialists to the defense industry ecosystem, thereby bringing the number of subcontractors in Konya to a certain level.  

During the two-day training program, participants, consisting of Konya industrialists, received training in various fields such as the procurement process, quality requirements, basic quality rules, FAI (First Article Inspection), measurement systems analysis and measurement techniques, technical drawing reading and geometric dimensioning, processing of precision elements, Helicoil application, aluminum material processing, and coating-painting technologies.

Evaluating the trainings, Mevlana Development Agency Secretary General Dr. İhsan Bostancı said, “As we all closely follow, countries' defense strategies consist of two important elements; the first is the military power possessed, and the second is the industrial and technological power, which has become more important today and determines the fate of wars. In today's world, where cards are reshuffled and global balances are forced to be re-established depending on military and technological developments,  countries allocate significant shares of their budgets to defense expenditures, especially technology investments, to increase the operational capabilities of their armies and to be a deterrent force in their regions. At this point, in our country, which has great importance geopolitically and geostrategically due to its geographical location, significant production moves have been made, especially in recent years, to ensure regional stability, to create a deterrent force against all kinds of threats, and to have a modern and strong armed forces. As a result of these efforts, the Turkish Defense Industry has entered a strong structuring together with the sub-sectors it cooperates with, the gains initiated by the public sector have been further strengthened by the initiative of the private sector, and by increasing the locality rates of products used in the defense industry to 80%, it has set new goals for itself in this field. In this process, the Aselsan Konya investment, realized in our city with a system in which industrialists from our city are also partners of ASELSAN, one of the proud institutions of our country's defense industry, which strengthens our army with the innovative technologies it produces and makes great contributions to our country's economy in terms of exports, is a turning point for Konya. As an Agency, we continue our efforts to contribute to the studies carried out in the field of defense industry, which, unlike civilian industry, has its own unique structure, where strategic dimensions outweigh economic dynamics, and which also has the feature of catalyzing all other sectors. Our Agency's defense industry studies, which initially started with two separate reports prepared to reveal the arms industry potential in the Huğlu and Üzümlü Regions of Beyşehir district, which has great importance in the defense industry, especially in the production of hunting rifles, have gained great momentum at the current point, and approximately 215 Million TL support in current figures has been provided to 43 projects by our Agency to date. In addition, 15 Million TL was allocated to the Technology and Youth Investment to Strengthen Our Defense Industry Project, applied for by Aselsan Konya Factory and declared successful within the scope of the Financing Support Financial Support Program announced by our Agency in 2023, and the project is ongoing. Within the scope of the studies carried out by our Agency in this field, the Defense Industry Sector Capability Atlas Project, implemented in cooperation with Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade Inc. (STM) to contribute to our country's defense industry efforts as Konya and Karaman, to identify, support, and guide the capabilities and talents of our ecosystem and firms, to increase and protect exports with new talents and competencies to be gained by our firms by fulfilling defense industry requirements, has been completed. Within the project, the current corporate structures, production infrastructures, product/technology capabilities of a total of 40 firms, 30 from Konya and 10 from Karaman, were evaluated by STM experts within the scope of the studies carried out by the Agency, and based on this, it was aimed to determine higher value-added products/technologies. In this framework, a support model proposal was developed by determining the most suitable support types and monitoring processes that companies can undertake. As a result, separate capability atlases determining the defense sector capabilities for Konya and Karaman provinces were created. As an institution, stating that our efforts for all stakeholders in our region's defense industry ecosystem will continue in order for the momentum gained by our country in the defense industry field to continue increasingly; I thank Aselsan Konya, one of our most important stakeholders in our efforts to strengthen and advance the defense industry in our province, which has shown significant will for the localization and nationalization of their production, as well as its Konyalization, and I wish the organized training program to be beneficial.”