The official opening ceremony of Akcansa Fine Arts School of 27 classrooms and a capacity of 200 students constructed by Akcansa – one of the Turkey’s leading building materials companies – was realized with the participations of Canakkale Governor Orhan Tavli, Provincial Director of National Education Ferhat Yilmaz, Sabancı Holding CEO Mehmet Gocmen, HeidelbergCement CEO Dr. Bernd Scheifele, Sabancı Holding Cement Group and Akcansa Board Chairman Dr. Tamer Saka, Akcansa General Manager Umut Zenar, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU) Rector Dr. Yucel Acer, Canakkale Wars Historic Area President Ismail Kasdemir, AK Party Canakkale Provincial Directorate Gultekin Yildiz and Akcansa’s business partners, dealers, teachers and students.
Gocmen: “Young population is our biggest driving force” Sabanci Holding CEO Mehmet Gocmen reminded that Akcansa is the major cement player in Turkey.
Pointing out that they are running a successful partnership with HeidelbergCement, Gocmen said: “Akcansa is an important example of corporate governance in Turkish industry with 50-50 percent partnership. I hope that we will have the opportunity to carry these successful activities together with our partners to other dimensions in the future. Gocmen stated that there are more than 25 million students in Turkey and continued as follows: “The young population is the guarantee of our future and our greatest driving force. In Sabancı Holding, we are working towards our ‘New Generation Sabanci’ vision. The average age of the employees of Sabanci Holding is 32. Sabanci Holding meets 8 percent of the tax collected in Turkey. It comprised of 10 percent of Istanbul Stock Exchange. So we have to create a suitable business environment for the new generation. In this respect, we attach great importance to our contribution to education. Fine art is very important not only for the growth of a country, but also for its cultural transformation. For this reason, I would like to thank Akcansa administrations for their services. This work was brought to this city. This work is now entrusted to all of us. Now let the young people have their say. They will raise the bar further with this opportunity provided to them. Very successful artists will show up. Gocmen concluded by saying: “We are investing what we earn from these lands in this country. 97 percent of our existence are within the borders of the Republic of Turkey. We will continue our investments without slowing down.”
Fine art is very important not only for the growth of a country, but also for its cultural transformation.
Dr. Scheifele: “We are pleased our partnership with Sabanci and our business in Turkey.”
Dr. Bernd Scheifele – the CEO of HeidelbergCement, having a half-share partnership with Sabanci Holding in Aksanca and being one of the world’s leading cement producer groups – said: “When viewed in terms of the Gallipoli peninsula, we are pleased with our factory being located in a city that represents a well-established and strong relationship between Turkey and Germany. As a company operating in the cement and heavy materials sector, we operate in 65 countries around the world. Our first priority is to provide the highest quality cement and services to the customer. We can only be successful as long as our customers are successful. Our operations have quite local characteristics. Our principle of activity is to think global and act local. For this reason, we maintain our long-standing relationship with Sabancı Holding and Akcansa with great respect and love. Dr. Scheifele emphasized that Akcansa is highly successful in analyzing local needs and implementing projects that touched the most accurate point in line with its social responsibility approach and wished success to the students of Akcansa Fine Arts High School.
