11.02.2011

With over 50,000 patents and an annual expense of 3.8 billion Euros on R&D efforts, Siemens, as a leading corporation in innovation, is continuing its R&D investments in Turkey.

Active in 190 countries, Siemens inaugurated its fourteenth research and development (R&D) center in Gebze. As one of the leading R&D centers in the world, the new center, which will be making a significant contribution to carrying out research on the technologies of the future, is expected to employ 30 at first and to be working with a staff of 100 by the end of 2011. Among the activities that the Center will be involved in will be energy conduction automatic systems, energy production management systems, automatic industrial panels and automatic building systems.

The opening took place in the presence of Siemens A.Ş. General Manager Hüseyin Gelis and Siemens Corporate Technologies Director Erdem Alptekin as well as Dr. Tevfik Sezi, who was acknowledged with an "Inventor of the Year 2008" Award in recognition of his 17 inventions and 24 patents in 2008. Siemens gives this award to 12 inventors every year.

In his statement, Siemens A.Ş. General Manager Hüseyin Gelis said that this division was an important milestone not only for Siemens, but also for Turkey. Gelis commented, "Siemens chose Turkey as a location for one of its R&D centers because of the high-quality engineering services and the competence of the engineering resources available in Turkey. The center will give Siemens the opportunity to develop and export technologies to Turkey and just as easily to Siemens companies in the rest of the world. The products that will be developed by Siemens Turkey will be put on the market in all the 190 countries in which Siemens does business."

Siemens Corporate Technologies (CT) Director Erdem Alptekin stressed at the opening how important Turkey was for Siemens in terms of the regions in which it is active. He said that Turkey's standing as the largest potential labor force market in the area closest to Europe as well as its cultural and geographical proximity to the continent had been important in choosing Turkey for this center. Underlining that Turkey had the youngest population in Europe and was the most important developing country in the world after the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), Alptekin continued to say that it was Siemens' more than 150 years of success in Turkey that was one of the most striking factors contributing to the opening of an R&D center here in this country.

In his opening speech, Alptekin said, "Besides the added value that the activities of the Siemens R&D center will contribute to Turkey, the research and development projects that will be undertaken will provide an opportunity for a significant transfer of know-how in the area of energy, health and industrial technologies. We are confident that the accumulation of knowledge that will emerge as a result of the R&D projects that we undertake in cooperation with the universities, the research organizations and our partner firms in the sector will make way for even greater benefits."

Siemens' Annual R&D Budget is Equal to that of Turkey

Siemens spends about 5% of its revenues for R&D investments and its 2008 R&D budget stands at the level of 3.8 billion Euros. This figure is approximately equal to the R&D expenditures of Turkey. Parallel to the importance it places on its R&D activities all around the world, Siemens employs an R&D staff of 32,500.