BIRLESIM_MUHENDISLIK 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

BİRLEŞİM MÜHENDİSLİK 2023 ANNUAL REPORT 21 Pursuing Growth through Industrial Projects Birleşim Mühendislik is actively pursuing opportunities to participate in projects in the pharmaceuticals, electronics, and defense industries, which are all major sectors where electromechanical installations are needed extensively. Although it is acknowledged that it is difficult to enter the arena of existing players in these projects where different decision-making dynamics have become entrenched, attention will be given to immediately evaluating any opportunities that may arise. Growth in cross-border markets The company’s long-standing efforts to find new markets abroad have finally yielded positive results beyond Russia and Azerbaijan, with Birleşim Mühendislik successfully venturing into a European country for the first time. Following the opening of a branch office in Hungary, building mechanical installation works were undertaken at the Şişecam glass container factory in Kaposvar. This is Birleşim Mühendislik’s first project in Europe and the EU. The company has shifted its focus to capitalizing on every opportunity to build a long- term reputation in a country whose construction contracting sector is quite lively. Serious efforts are underway in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Libya, and the goal of entering at least two more countries in 2024 remains a top priority. Efforts are also underway to position Birleşim Mühendislik as a preferred partner in the conduct of upcoming hospital projects in Kazakhstan. A subsidiary company was set up early this year (2024) to oversee our operations in the region. There are encouraging signs that the prolonged internal conflict in Libya may be nearing an end, with parties moving closer together as a result of an internationally brokered agreement. Turkish contractors have significant opportunities in Tripoli and the surrounding area, particularly in restarting stalled projects and undertaking new ones. We are actively tracking the evolving situation in the region and taking proactive measures to ensure that we are well-positioned to take advantage of emerging opportunities. Pursuing Growth through Digitalization The ongoing digitalization process is also a matter of importance for the construction and electromechanical contracting industries. The first major development in this direction took place in the construction industry with the arrival of 3D modeling software that makes it possible to design and produce three-dimensional architectural, mechanical, and electrical projects. The superior capabilities of these computer- aided-design programs facilitate not only engineering drawing but also engineering calculations that result in the generation of error-free dimensions and bills of materials. Technological progress is encouraging the construction industry to look for new ways to manage processes that will simplify the relational complexities involved in contracting work. One outcome of this is the introduction of building information modeling (BIM), whose international standard (ISO 19650) was published in early 2019. BIM software provides a set of tools that allow all of a particular building’s processes from project feasibility, design, financing, and construction on the one hand to operation, maintenance, and even demolition at the end of its useful life on the other to be managed in the most efficient, expeditious, economical, and appropriate way possible. Over the last two years in many countries, the use of BIM software has become mandatory in projects with dimensions above a specified threshold. In our own country, it is becoming a tendering requirement in large-scale public works projects. As Birleşim Mühendislik we are aware that BIM processes will ultimately bring electromechanical works contracting to the prefabricated manufacturing stage and accordingly we are already developing strategies for dealing with this. Thanks to BIM processes and software, much of the work that is done and the elements that are fabricated at a construction site nowadays will instead be produced more exactly and more economically in factories as modules that will then be transported to and quickly assembled at the site. Seeing BIM processes as a crucially important advance in the business of installation contracting, Birleşim Mühendislik is incorporating them into its own growth strategy as one of their pioneers and leading advocates in Turkey.