The Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Union and the Dokuz Eylul University (DEU) has signed a cooperation agreement recently for the establishment of a ‘Technical Textiles Research and Applications Center’ in the Turkish city of Izmir, with the aim of increasing exports of technical textiles from the city as well as the country.

At a press conference to announce the cooperation agreement, chairman of the Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Union, Unluturk Sabri said the research center would be established with the aim of providing infrastructure for research and development (R&D) work, to create innovative products for increasing exports of technical textiles from the Aegean region.

Mr. Sabri said the research center is aimed at providing technical assistance to entrepreneurs operating in the sector, especially in segments such as medical and protective textiles, and the center would include R&D departments that would work on developing new and innovative products in the technical textiles sector.

The technical textiles research center would be constructed at DEU Tinaztepe campus with a budget of five million Turkish liras, of which 75 percent would be contributed by the Izmir Development Agency (IZKA), he added.

According to the chairman, the center would be a one-of-a-kind organization and would support entrepreneurs in the country to create products that can compete in the international market, and increase the country’s share in exports of technical textile products.

Technical textiles, especially medical textiles, is a sector that has huge growth potential and investing in R&D would create an opportunity for entrepreneurs to engage in manufacturing state-of-the art innovative products, he added.

The technical textile center would deal in R&D work for 12 different segments including agrotextiles, construction textiles, apparels, geotextiles, hygiene and medical textiles, protective textiles, sports textiles, and more.