ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended Saturday a ceremony at an Istanbul shipyard to launch the construction of four search and rescue ships for the Turkish Coast Guard.
Delivering a speech at the ceremony Erdogan said defense industry and shipbuilding industry have become two rapidly developing strategic sectors.
"In 2002, Turkey ranked the 23th in the world in shipbuilding industry and now our country is at 4th place after South Korea, Japan and China in number of orders and tonnage," Erdogan said.
Erdogan said a major part of Turkish military's needs were met by Turkish defense contractors with their national designs and projects.
"Beyond supplying the Turkish military, our defense contractors have started export their products to foreign countries," Erdogan said.
(YMB-EÖ)