MÜSİAD BANDIRMA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
24 JUNE 2021
Honourable Metropolitan Mayor,
Honourable Mayor of Bandırma,
Presidents and Representatives of the Bandırma Business World and of the NGOs,
Esteemed Members of the MÜSİAD Board of Directors,
Branch Presidents Who Have Come From the Neighbouring Provinces,
Esteemed President and Members of Our MÜSİAD Bandırma Branch,
Esteemed Members of the Press,
I greet you with respect at our General Assembly; welcome.
Distinguished Guests,
As the year 2020 passed with all its weight over not only us but all the countries of the world, we finally entered the month of June 2021 under conditions of normalization. May God not make us long for these days and may He deliver us completely from this affliction.
Economic and commercial activities that had contracted all over the world have finally begun to open up and even to expand. However, particularly with regard to taking a share of investments, while the developed countries unfortunately fell behind this time, the developing countries drew the world's foreign direct investments into themselves almost like a magnet, at a rate reaching %70. Yet our country did not receive the share it wanted from this fertile flow. When the last twenty-year period is considered, it shows that for the first time our figures in attracting foreign direct investment have fallen and that some foreign investors have moved away from our country.
My dear brothers and sisters, this situation is a sign that in the period ahead we stand at the door of a highly critical era in terms of sustainable development.
Of course, the growth rate of %7 that we achieved in the first quarter of 2021 despite the difficult conditions of the pandemic is a highly commendable success, but unfortunately it is not sufficient for sustainable development.
The inflationary environment we are currently in and the high credit costs still show that we are a risky investment area.
Great duties fall to us here. Investment is now made and defined under brand-new conditions in the world. We too must keep pace with this change and address investment not merely as inviting companies in certain countries to become partners here, but as presenting Türkiye as an investment market.
The MÜSİAD TIA (MÜSİAD TRADE and INVESTMENT AGENCIES) system, which we designed together with the Presidency Investment Office in order to promote Türkiye as an investment and trade market for foreign direct investors and to make MÜSİAD's international field presence operate like a trade and investment system, will serve this purpose and will thereby both put investment diplomacy into operation and draw the active investment diaspora abroad to our country.
As I also expressed at the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Meeting I attended in Gebze on Tuesday: the world today is going through days in which the importance of countries preserving their own strength, of being self-sufficient and of having a say in international competition is emphasized.
As in the past, so today, the picture created by mass crises shows that countries walking alone lag behind in eliminating the negative conditions and consequences the crisis has brought, and that they are left alone in this matter. Within this framework, when we as business people are able to conduct diplomacy together with our own trading potential and effort, economic developments that can be clearly observed over the years emerge.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the road we set out upon with the consciousness of serving our homeland and of saying our country first, today we are in Bandırma.
After the assessment we have made at the national level, I would like to touch upon the economic data specific to Balıkesir and Bandırma, among the important production and trade regions of Marmara: in Balıkesir, whose economy is % 51' dependent on industry, the manufacturing industry constitutes %17 of total GDP.
The port of Bandırma plays a major role in the development of the city.
Exports made from Bandırma Port — which, with an annual capacity of 4.5 million tons, is the second largest in the Sea of Marmara after İstanbul and the fifth largest port in our country — consist mainly of industrial products, minerals, white meat, eggs, and marine and aquatic products.
In the city, where industrial raw materials make up % 70 of imports, consumer goods and minerals hold an important place.
When we look at the average annual trade volume of Bandırma port, which accounts for %90 of the exports made from the province of Balıkesir, we see a figure of some USD 800 million.
Balıkesir, which ranked 24th among Türkiye's largest exporting provinces in 2020, succeeded in increasing its exports by %5.5 to 617.5 million in this period when exports were contracting across the country.
In order to carry this success further and to increase Bandırma's share within the provincial and national economy even more, as business people we will do everything in our power with new investments and by using the existing potential to the maximum.
Distinguished Guests,
As you know, in order to prepare in advance for the new world system, as MÜSİAD we launched our Renewal process. Our motto at the outset was “Together”. And now we say WE ARE HERE. With the peace of mind of having kept the promises I gave you when I first took office and of having, God willing, fulfilled this sacred duty in a manner befitting it, we leave the word WE ARE HERE to the next term. For Türkiye — in production, in trade, in investment, in every field of society from art to culture, in solidarity, for our country's development and prosperity — we are always here.
We have fulfilled almost all the openings we planned and promised within the framework of our Renewal process. Now we are reaping the fruits of this process with our large-scale projects.
As MÜSİAD, we are developing projects aimed at increasing the contribution made to the national economy and at improving the culture of partnership among our members.
Our 23 committees in total under the roof of the MÜSİAD ASSEMBLY have begun to gather potential investors and industrialists in Anatolia around certain projects, with projects compatible with their own thematic or sectoral fields.
These projects have begun to encourage the capital power in Anatolia to invest in projects or to become partners in them.
For example, with our Investment and Production Bases Project, we have created a model that will build living and production zones where all the needs of our small-scale companies — which struggle to produce in narrow areas and therefore cannot reach scale — will be met in the same environment, and that will in time turn them into institutionalized companies ready to move to organized industrial zones. We have completed the first prototype of this model and have begun the construction of the second.
We must establish production bases for possible recurring epidemics and disasters. By establishing production bases, it becomes possible to protect companies, employees and production in situations of epidemic or severe disaster and to keep them going without a full lockdown.
On the other hand, with our Smart Agricultural Cities Project we have launched an initiative to encourage rural development and in this way to support reverse migration and to attain a homogeneous population structure.
We presented this to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as a model.
With the Smart Agricultural Cities Model, we have developed an initiative to encourage rural life and to support rural development, with opportunities targeting the population crowded into the big cities and especially the enterprises of women and young people.
Today many of our members in Anatolia are carrying out preparatory work to implement this initiative in their own regions.
Many more projects like these have been produced by our committees and spread to the grassroots.
Branding cities in the field of gastro-tourism through gastro-economy and Turkish Culinary Arts; establishing structures such as Caravan Tourism and Field Hospitals through multiple partnerships; creating a secure purchasing platform in the second-hand vehicle market; creating a secure real estate buying and selling platform; growing selected SMEs in 20 places and 23 locations in line with the 2023 goals and turning them into Türkiye and World Brands. This and many other similar projects have been the fruits of MÜSİAD's Renewal adventure.
God willing, with this integration process of ours in the branches, you will be instrumental in carrying our MÜSİAD much further forward.
Distinguished Guests,
As I conclude my remarks here, I hope that our branch's general assembly will be a means to goodness, and I greet you with respect and affection.
Abdurrahman KAAN
President of MÜSİAD
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD