The technology that is present in almost every aspect of our lives and the developments it brings along is rapidly transforming the whole world. Due to this swift transformation, different needs, fresh business lines, and new markets have emerged.
Keeping this situation in mind, it would be unfortunate not to concentrate on adaptation and sustainability through Industry 4,0. Admittedly, It is a fact that these two transformative concepts will dominate the competitive power of the industry in the medium and long runs.
As Uludağ Textile Exporters’ Association (UTİB), we are taking the necessary steps for the development of both our industry and economy and specifically focus on projects and activities that will turn this transformation into an opportunity. Our event, “International R & D Project Market Summit in UTİB, Turkey Textile and Clothing Industry”, realized and organized for the first time in 2009 as UTİB, constituted a first for Exporters’ Associations, and exemplary for all sectors has been instrumental in numerous collaborations in 10 years. In order to bring high value-added technology to our sector in the most accurate way, we re-organized the event under a new approach, called X TechXtile Start-Up Challenge by upgrading our 11th event this year to a totally different lane based on the initiatives applicable to industry. We opened up a huge gateway for new entrepreneurs and designers by bringing them into production processes with the TechXtile Start-Up Challenge, which is organized to make new technologies and methods in textile applicable to industry and increase value-added exports. That is why, we focused on sustainable projects that can be achievable, sellable, scalable, and have technological innovation and depth. We additionally provided entrepreneurship and innovation training to the project owners and provided mentoring support. Now, we continue on our way to meet them with potential customers, to institutionalize them and to grow prominent entrepreneurs with incubation and other types of assistance over time.
As Uludağ Textile Exporters’ Association (UTİB), we closely follow the new formations in the market and continue to reflect the competitive power of Turkish textiles by providing national participation in the world’s leading fairs with its size, prestige, the number of exhibitors and visitors, in addition to the projects that bring ideas together with the capital as UTIB, as well as our industry. In a world that has been digitalized with technology, we are experiencing a period where sales approaches differ and contemporary promotion and sales movements and principles evolve into new areas with technology. We firmly believe that the importance of fairs will increase in order to closely touch and feel the products and brands in near future. Everything is developing towards the digital network, however, what will always remain important for brands is to socialize with the buyers. In line with this, UTIB will continue to participate in international fairs, which are becoming increasingly important as a result of changing competition conditions, transformation in the world and economic balances, in December and in the new year.
Denim Premiere Vision London, which will be held in December, will be a showcase that will make an indelible impression for Turkish Denim, which adopts an innovative culture and presents different perspectives with its design, painting and sustainable production methods. Our industry, which has proven itself in many areas around the world, is moving forward confidently in creating successful brands. Being the 4th most exporting country in Denim with 338 million dollars in fabric and 1.7 billion dollars in ready-to-wear garments reveals a promising future. We, as in previous fairs, will create an event area in December in order to bring our sector to the forefront. By combining sustainability with technology in our field, We will make a visual presentation to emphasizing the awareness of our exporters in this field.
As a result, textile, which is one of the oldest branches of trade in historical terms, will undoubtedly make its mark on the world trade with a huge transformation in the next 10-20 years, just as it played a major role during the industrial revolution. Textile, which has been the driving force in the economic development of many countries in the past, will increase its importance even more with its feature that can make the best use of high technology and makes a difference with sustainable-ecological production. In these days, on the eve of closing 2019 and welcoming the new year, we will continue to work with all our energy to ensure that Turkish Textile, which has a say in the world with its product quality, and designs that have the power to determine fashion and trends, will lead the way in sustainable production and implementation of artificial intelligence with industry 4.0.