GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPEECH

ADANA / 24 January 2023

Honourable Minister,

Honourable Governor,

Honourable Members of Parliament,

Esteemed Presidents and Representatives of the Business and Political World, of the NGOs and of our Chambers,

Honourable President of our Adana Branch,

Esteemed Members of the Board of Directors and Former Branch Presidents,

Esteemed Presidents of our Branches who have come from the neighbouring provinces,

Esteemed MÜSİAD Members,

My Brothers and Sisters of Young MÜSİAD,

Esteemed Members of the Press,

Ladies and Gentlemen

I greet you all with respect and affection.

Welcome to our Adana General Assembly; you have honoured us.

Sirs, first of all I pray to Almighty God that our General Assembly may be a means of goodness.

I would like to express the pleasure I feel at being together with you today in our Adana.

Our esteemed members, distinguished guests,

Reaching a total of 165 branches and contact points on a global scale, MÜSİAD, with its more than 13 thousand members and its nearly 60 thousand companies, both provides added value to the Turkish economy and leads the development of different forms of cooperation at home and abroad.

MÜSİAD is a global platform of cooperation and capital and, just as much, a development movement that draws its strength from our rich values of civilization and from the wisdom of Anatolia. As today's bearers of this movement's banner, we always run with love in order to earn the approval of the Truth. As the great master Neşet Ertaş said: “He who runs with love never grows weary.”

Last weekend we were in Konya and Karaman; the week before in Gebze and Sakarya; at the beginning of the week in İnegöl, Bursa and Karadeniz Ereğli, and yesterday in Mersin, and now we are here... And in the coming days, with Antalya, Denizli, Tokat and Kayseri, we continue to travel every inch of our country and to explain our mission.

Esteemed guests, dear friends,

Our Adana, the sixth most populous city of Türkiye, is a leading centre of trade and culture in Türkiye. The city's possession of capital accumulation, the presence of organized industrial zones and of a technopark, the existence of business development centres, its openness to every kind of transport and the presence of a long-established university stand out as Adana's strong points.

Adana is also the marketing and distribution centre of the Çukurova agricultural region, where cotton, wheat, soybeans, barley, grapes and citrus fruits are produced in great quantities.

The textile and leather industries are major industrial branches constituting %30 of Adana's production, and facilities producing vegetable oil and processed food are also numerous. Along with agriculture, livestock breeding too, as the geographical conditions permit, contributes to the Adana economy above the average of the national economy.

In 2022 Adana's total exports rose by %20.8 compared with the previous year, reaching the level of USD 3.0 billion. With this performance Adana succeeded in becoming Türkiye's 13th largest exporting province in that period. Exporting to a total of 182 countries in 2022 and thus displaying a highly successful performance, Adana's 3 leading export destinations were Iraq, Germany and Spain respectively.

I congratulate from the heart our fellow business people of Adana who have put their signature to great successes. As MÜSİAD we will strive harder and work harder for the development of the economy, the industry and the trade of our Adana.

Esteemed guests,

After a busy and productive year, we are working to put our signature to important undertakings in 2023 as well. The 2nd Turkish-Arab Business Summit, which we held in Gaziantep in 2022 with the participation of more than 1,300 Turkish and Arab businessmen, took its place in our history as the largest business forum in the Middle East. This year too we will hold the 3rd Turkish-Arab Business Summit in our Konya, the city where trade and history meet. At the “International Business Forum (IBF) 3rd Turkish-Arab Business Summit”, which we will hold on 5-7 May 2023, we aim to bring together more than 2,000 businessmen from 40 countries in our Konya. We already invite all our businessmen to this important summit of ours and hope that it will bring good things to our country and to our region.

I would also like to summarize briefly for you the activities we will carry out in the first four months of this year;

After completing our branch general assemblies in January: the Saudi Arabia Business Trip on 11-19 February, the 8th International Young Businessmen Congress (UGİK) on 23 February, the General Administrative Board at our Head Office on 24-26 February, the Young MÜSİAD General Assembly on 4 March, the USA Trip on 5-9 March, the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on 10-12 March, the Japan and Malaysia Branch Openings on 13-20 March, the Industry Summit on 21 March… Along with this rich calendar of activities we will, God willing, welcome the Holy Month of Ramadan on 23 March. During the month of Ramadan we will hold our branch iftar and sahur programmes. And on 29 April we will hold our MÜSİAD 27th Ordinary General Assembly.

We have prepared our Strategic Plan for the new term; God willing, in line with this plan we will continue to work and to produce for our country and for all humanity.

Esteemed guests, my dear brothers and sisters,

Despite the geopolitical risks that ran high in 2022 following the global pandemic and despite the slowing global economy, the Turkish economy, thanks to its dynamic and flexible structure, succeeded in growing above the world and G20 averages.

That our economy has continued to grow in such a difficult period, in which recession and stagflation scenarios are being discussed in the developed countries, is a clear indication of how greatly Türkiye has strengthened its immunity against external shocks.

Ahead of us there are difficult and sharp crossroads that we must pass through. We believe that, passing through these crossroads all together, we will begin a new period of surging forward in the 100th Year of our Republic and right at the beginning of the Century of Türkiye.

Esteemed guests, my dear brothers and sisters,

General assemblies are periods of renewal and regeneration. As MÜSİAD, by running day and night, by renewing ourselves continuously at every level, by changing the guard from time to time and by growing in a healthy manner, we preserve our dynamism and our enthusiasm. Together with MÜSİAD Women and Young MÜSİAD we are strengthening our family, and by continuously widening our sphere of influence we are deepening it. With our sector boards and our rich organizational structure we are penetrating as far as the capillaries of our economy.

That our Branch General Assemblies should pass productively is very important for making this strong structure of ours sustainable. In this regard I hope that the general assembly of our Adana branch will pass successfully and that its results will be auspicious. I congratulate our esteemed members of the board of directors who took office in the previous term. I especially thank our esteemed President Mr. Burhan Kavak. May God be pleased with him. I wish success from the heart to our friends who will newly take office. These duties are sacred trusts for us. We can do justice to this trust only by watching over it with sensitivity and by handing it over to our new friends when the time comes.

My dear brothers and sisters, our esteemed members,

As the MÜSİAD family we have very great responsibilities. In this sensitive period, abandoning personal ambitions and calculations entirely, we will work and produce selflessly, sincerely and with self-sacrifice for our nation and for our country, and by God's leave we will all together begin a new period of surging forward.

With these feelings and thoughts, as I bring my words to an end, I hope once again that our general assembly will be a means of goodness, and I wish success to our brothers and sisters who will take office in the new term.

Stay well. May God protect you.

President of MÜSİAD

Mahmut Asmalı