03-04 December BURSA General Administrative Board Speech

MÜSİAD President Mr. Mahmut Asmalı

Honourable Minister,

Honourable Governor,

Honourable Mayor,

Esteemed President,

Esteemed representatives of our press

Esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to our General Administrative Board meeting entitled “Green Transformation in Automotive Technologies and the Supplier Industry”, hosted by our MÜSİAD Bursa branch; you have honoured us. I pray to Almighty God that our meeting may bring good things to our first capital Bursa, to our country and to the whole world.

As you all know, Bursa has for many years been called “Green Bursa”. With its rich vegetation and its green texture it has preserved this name for centuries. That the subject of “green transformation in the automotive supplier industry” should be taken up in Bursa, which is at the same time a city of the automotive industry, has been a fitting choice. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar says the following about Bursa, the city of history, of culture, of science and of art, in his book Beş Şehir: “Our forefathers were not building, they were worshipping. They had a spirit and a faith that they insistently wished to pass into matter. Stone came alive in their hands; it was cut into a fragment of soul. Wall, dome, arch, mihrab, tile—all of them pray in the Yeşil, think in the Muradiye; in the Yıldırım they wait above the plain, ready for action, with the swoop of an eagle thirsting for the depth of the skies…”

Our Bursa Branch, being one of the first branches of our MÜSİAD, has successfully represented our mission for many years. Ranking second after İstanbul among Türkiye's largest exporting provinces in 2020, Bursa displays great economic dynamism. The automotive industry ranks first in the province's exports here with a share of %53. In total automotive exports Bursa ranks first with its share of %26 across the country.

Honourable Minister, esteemed presidents, distinguished guests,

Our meeting entitled “Green Transformation in Automotive Technologies and the Supplier Industry”, which constitutes the main theme of our General Administrative Board agenda, is being held on the eve of a very important decision. As we are all following closely, with a decision it took in 2019 the EU adopted the “European Green Deal” and moved to a new growth strategy that will continue until 2050. This indicates that all policies will be reshaped within the framework of climate change. In the panel we organized we examined this subject in all its aspects. I thank all our speakers and the listeners who took part.

Honourable Minister, Esteemed Presidents,

As MÜSİAD we have been advancing for 31 years, drawing our strength from our members. With our 11 thousand members and our 60 thousand companies we provide employment to 1 million 800 thousand people. With the added value we create we give direction to the development of the Turkish economy.

As we always say, our MÜSİAD is a hearth, a school, a voluntary body. And our door is open to everyone who wishes to serve our country and our people…

Individuals are temporary; the institution is permanent.

The late Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Zaim, one of the important opinion leaders of our country, said: “If you raise a single person, what he will do is limited. When death knocks at the door, all his accumulated knowledge goes with him. But when you establish an institution, it continues until the Day of Judgement.”

On this occasion I would also like to touch upon Visionary21, which we shared with the public a few days ago at a press conference:

We have determined the theme of this year's Visionary meetings, which have been held with different mottos since 2015, as “Notice”. Because everything begins by “noticing”, and “to notice” means to build the future. And we, as the MÜSİAD Visionary family, want our country to be in the leading role in the global arena, and that is why we say ‘Notice’…”

The Paris Climate Agreement, with a series of practices within the scope of the fight against the climate crisis, places important responsibilities upon our business world. Not only renewable energy options; green, carbon-free energy will also be on our agenda. Together with our Energy and Environment Sector Board and our most esteemed academics, we will share our manifesto on climate with you on 22 December.

Under the special panel title ‘Notice Our Values’, Prof. Dr. Temel Kotil and the author Steven Young, the psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Kemal Sayar, and one of our doyen teachers, Prof. Dr. Sadettin Ökten, will take part in the summit.

Honourable Minister, Distinguished Guests;

I would like to end my speech with a brief analysis of our country's economy: although many international institutions thought that the Turkish economy would contract in 2020, our economy grew by %1.8 and displayed significant resilience against the COVID-19 crisis. As will be recalled, those same international institutions expected growth in the band of %5-6 for Türkiye in 2021.

In these days, as we enter the last month of the year, we are experiencing the joy of seeing that the Turkish economy is advancing with sure steps towards a double-digit annual growth rate.

Growing by %7.4 in the third quarter of the year and thereby ranking at the top among the G20 countries in this field, our country has continued to decouple positively from the global economy.

In this period, in which many countries are waging what is virtually a “struggle for survival” after COVID-19, and in which the USA and China were able to grow by %4.9 and the Euro Area by %3.7, the Turkish economy's growth by %7.4 points to a performance worthy of appreciation.

Thus, growing positively without interruption for 5 quarters since the 3rd quarter of 2020, when post-pandemic normalization began, the Turkish economy has also given quite fine signals in terms of the dynamics of that growth.

In this period net external demand, which contributed 6.8 points to the %7.4 growth, became the harbinger of a transition to an economy driven not only by domestic consumption but also, and indeed mainly, by production and exports.

Investments, which made a positive contribution to growth in the first quarter of the year, lost their momentum in the 3rd quarter and limited the growth in GDP by 0.6 points in the negative direction. This has once again laid bare what an obstacle high interest rates create before investments.

In every period, but particularly in the critical period we are in, making access to finance difficult with high interest rates hinders the increase of investment, production and employment and limits the growth of our national economy.

Thanks to machinery and equipment investments continuing to grow by %17.5 in the third quarter of the year despite high interest, an expansion of %10 was recorded in the industrial sector in this period. These data show that our manufacturers' confidence in the Turkish economy and their appetite for production and investment continue.

That this eagerness of our industrialists should not be sacrificed to high interest rates is an indispensable condition for the Turkish economy to attain the quality of sustainable growth.

In this context, we believe that with the reflection upon the markets of the interest rate cut decisions taken by the CBRT in the last 2 periods, investments will once again make a positive contribution to growth in the final quarter, and that with the record increases in exports and the continuing vigour of domestic demand we will reach an annual growth rate of above %10 for 2021 as a whole.

As I bring my words to an end, I extend my thanks to our esteemed Minister, our Governor, our Mayor and our Member of Parliament who attended our General Administrative Board Meeting, to our esteemed branch presidents who took part in the programme from every part of our country, to our MÜSİAD Women and Young MÜSİAD Presidents and to all the esteemed guests who attended, and I entrust you all to God.