LOC20:24
17:24 GMT
ANKARA, Jan 13 (KUNA) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday Turkey and Qatar would build a zone for production and technology, aimed at developing defense industries in cooperation.
The zone, to be built over 2.220 million square meters, would include factories for the manufacturing of tanks, armored and military vehicles, in addition to plants for cars, trucks, engines and speed trains, said Erdogan.
He was addressing a gathering of BMC for military industries in western Turkey.
The USD 500 million zone, he added, would provide around 10,000 jobs when full production got underway in 2023.
Erdogan thanked Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim Al-Thani for sharing the establishment of the zone, whose production projected to USD billion a year.
He said Turkey decreased its defense imports in the past 16 years, and it was relying on domestic production by 68 percent. (end)
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