“Anatolian Economic Diplomacy” - Italy-Bursa Meeting

30 November 2023

Honourable Ambassador,

Dear friends, esteemed MÜSİAD Family,

Valued representatives of our business world,

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

I respectfully greet you all.

Welcome; you have honoured us with your presence…

Distinguished guests,

In this year of 2023 in which we find ourselves, together with the 100th year of our Republic, a new road map was adopted under the leadership of our Honourable President: it is possible to say that this road map of ours named “the Century of Türkiye” is in fact the form in which the efforts put forth over the last twenty years have reached their peak.

Particularly in recent years, an outlook has been put forth that brings to the fore economic, commercial and diplomatic relations with the entire international community, from Europe to China, from Azerbaijan to Indonesia, from Africa to India. Of course, this diplomatic effort and labour spread over the years is very important for us as well.

As MÜSİAD, a civil actor of commercial diplomacy, we have always aligned ourselves with the vision and the perspective of our country, whether through the business trips we make or through our diplomatic and commercial contacts, and we have made an intense effort in order to build new commercial relations. Today too we are holding one of the most concrete meetings of this effort that we continue, one more of our MÜSİAD “Anatolian Economic Diplomacy” meetings.

Esteemed guests,

For those who do not know, I would like to speak to you very briefly about the main idea of this fine event.

Anatolian Economic Diplomacy is an undertaking that constitutes the multi-faceted strategy which MÜSİAD put into practice as of the year 2021. We aim to present and to promote the potential of our Anatolian cities in order to develop trade and to increase employment and exports. Within this scope we invite the Ambassador of the country in question directly to that province of ours and host the accompanying delegation, above all the trade attaché.

Our esteemed Ambassador who is our guest, on the one hand, introduces his country and, on the other hand, directs the purchasing delegations to come, the business people seeking commercial partnerships and those wishing to invest towards these provinces of ours. And since the entrepreneurs in our province come to know the countries in question more closely, they visit them for the purpose of market development and of increasing business potential, open representative offices and conduct trade.

In this way we take a very important step for the purpose of contributing both to our members here and to the economies of our country and of Italy.

Within the scope of Anatolian Economic Diplomacy, following our first meeting with the Ambassador of Nigeria in Çorum in the month of November of the year 2021, we have to date held a total of ten meetings in different provinces of ours. Last year, at the meetings we held in our provinces of Kayseri, Samsun, Gebze, Niğde, Gebze, Gaziantep and Hatay, we had the opportunity to come together respectively with the Ambassadors of the Independent Arab Emirates, Hungary, South Sudan, New Zealand, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In the course of the year 2023, we hosted the Embassies of India and Indonesia at the meetings we held in our provinces of Denizli and Trabzon.

Today, at our Anatolian Economic Diplomacy event, the tenth of which we are proud to hold in Bursa, we host the Ambassador of Italy, Mr. Giorgio Marrapodi. We thank the esteemed Ambassador once again for his participation.

Above all, I think it is necessary to emphasize this: we, as the MÜSİAD Family, attach great importance to these meetings... We aim, God willing, to make even more frequent in the periods ahead the Anatolian Economic Diplomacy meetings, which both reveal the potential of our Anatolian cities and serve as a means for the development of our commercial relations with many countries of the world.

Indeed, in order to pass these efforts on to the younger generations and to raise qualified people in this field, we are launching the Commercial Diplomacy Workshop within the Young MÜSİAD organization.

I congratulate everyone who has contributed. May God not let our efforts go to waste.

Honourable Ambassador,

Distinguished guests,

Italy, the 4th largest economy of Europe and the 8th of the world, is also among the founding members of the European Union. Italy owes its strong economic structure to small and medium-sized firms that, compared with other industrialized countries, are more often family companies managed by these families and that have moreover come together within industrial groups. In this respect Italy is also included in the group of industrialized countries known as the G8.

We may say that the manufacturing sector in particular is very strong in the economy of Italy. For the last thirty years it has held the position of the 2nd largest producer of Europe and the 6th of the world in this sector. Among the main industries may be counted automotive, shipbuilding, chemicals, furniture, clothing and textiles, leather goods and footwear, food processing, ceramic products, components and machinery. Today there are more than 200 industrial zones in Italy.

Türkiye and Italy are two regional powers that have common interests in the Mediterranean Basin and that share a common history and common values. Italy is at the same time one of the most important trading partners of Türkiye.

Türkiye's exports to Italy increased by %8 in 2022 compared with the previous year and reached the highest level in history at USD 12.4 billion. In the same period Türkiye's imports from Italy also reached a record level, increasing by %21.8 compared with the previous year to USD 14.1 billion. As can be seen, the bilateral trade volume peaked at USD 26.5 billion.

In the January-September period of the year 2023, however, while Türkiye's exports to Italy slowed compared with the previous year, the upward trend in imports continued. In the period in question Türkiye's exports to Italy fell by %1.7 to approximately USD 9.2 billion, while Türkiye's imports from Italy rose by %5.4 to USD 10.9 billion.

Now that we have shared these numerical data, it would be good to speak also of the range of products that are the subject of our trade with Italy. The principal products exported are automotive main and supplier industry products, textiles, iron and steel and their by-products. The principal products imported are machinery and appliances, transport vehicles, metals and chemicals.

According to the data of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), in the twenty-year period between 2002 and 2022 the total of the direct investments made in our country by firms with Italian capital amounts to USD 4 billion 989 million. In the same period the total of the direct investments made in Italy by firms with Turkish capital stood at the level of USD 560 million.

More than 1,500 companies with Italian capital operate in our country. It is observed that the Italian firms in Türkiye are concentrated in the industrial sector mainly on food, ready-made clothing, chemical products, electrical and electronic goods, machinery manufacturing, furniture, iron and steel and automotive; and in the services sector on trade, tourism, communications, banking and investment finance.

Companies registered in Türkiye have more than 50 partnerships or affiliates in Italy. A large number of enterprises belonging to Turkish citizens operate in Northern Italy in particular. However, the enterprises in question are of a smaller scale compared with enterprises in other European countries.

Distinguished guests, esteemed members of MÜSİAD,

The information we have dwelt upon is largely nationwide information. There is also the part of the matter that concerns our beautiful Bursa. With your permission, I think it would be fitting to touch briefly upon that as well:

The commercial relations between Bursa, which is among the locomotive cities of the Turkish economy, and Italy are in fact quite deep-rooted. On this occasion we shall, God willing, strive to increase this trade volume in the periods ahead.

Looking at today's data, we can see that there are 511 firms exporting from Bursa to Italy. Likewise, we know that 38 firms with Italian capital operate in our city of Bursa… When we examine matters on an annual basis, we see that the exports carried out from Bursa to Italy amounted to USD 122 million in the year 2021. Considering that it comes immediately after İstanbul, which has a volume of USD 396 million, this amount is in fact by no means one to be underestimated…

Esteemed guests,

As Italy and Türkiye, the two commercial and economic powers in our region, increase their cooperation activities, great economic gains will emerge for both countries.

We believe that the commercial contacts of our country and of our city of Bursa with Italy will increase much further in the periods ahead and will reach better levels. On this matter our efforts to raise commercial diplomacy to the highest levels through our MÜSİAD Representative Office located in Italy will always continue.

Dear friends,

As I conclude my remarks here, I wish that this meeting of ours may be a means to good outcomes for both countries. Once again I thank the Honourable Ambassador and you all for honouring us with your presence.

I greet you all with my most sincere feelings…

May God protect you.

Mahmut Asmalı

President of MÜSİAD