The lighting business in Turkey is taking steps toward regional leadership after the sector’s growth in pace with overall national growth, experts said at the Light Fair. The sector has already reached an annual volume of $2 billion, recent figures show.The 7th IstanbulLight Fair ended on Sunday after gathering local actors in the lighting business along with representatives from global companies.Ülkem Kırımlı, lighting general manager of Phillips, a global firm active in Turkey for 81 years, said the domestic sector started developing in 2008.

 "The growth rate of the Turkish branch was way above this average," she said, declining to give a specific figure. The overall growth of the country played a key role in this rise, she said.
"A shift to energy-efficient products in residences is rapid. Still, the technology used in lighting roads is too old," she said.

"The awareness of energy saving is improving step by step."Philips has stopped selling inefficient transparent bulbs, pioneering the whole sector, she said.
"Residences are using some 40 percent of the total energy consumed and lighting has a 20 percent share in this rate."Recent Philips research showed changing 12 specific light bulbs in an ordinary house with alterative lighting apparels helped save some 20 Turkish Liras a month, she said.

There are more than 2,000 domestic and foreign companies in the business in Turkey as of last year.
The sector, which creates jobs for 60,000, is exporting goods to over 100 countries, summing up $250 million annually, according to figures provided by the organizers of the fair.

The sector in Turkey started developing in the late 1960’s when some international companies opened glow lamps – the ordinary light bulbs – and fluorescent producing factories in the country, according to a 2005 report by Ahmet Oruç Esin, the secretary general of the Turkish Lighting Luminaries Manufacturers Association or AGİD.
Turkish investors entered the market in the 70’s but their contribution to the global market remained limited, the report said.
“Turkey is the darkest country in its region in satellite photographs,” the 2005 report said.
However, recent figures showed that the $400 million sector had reached $2 million, rising fivefold, by 2010.
Export volume in 2000 was $38 million. The figure increased to $134 million in 2005 and $250 million in 2010, showing a nearly 650 percent increase in a decade.