MÜSİAD CYPRUS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

18 JUNE 2021

Honourable Ambassador,

Honourable Minister of Environment and Tourism of the TRNC, Honourable members of the presiding council

Honourable President of the TRNC Prime Ministry Investment Agency,

My presidents of the Turkish Chamber of Industry and Chamber of Commerce,

Presidents and Representatives of the Business and Political World, of the Chambers and of the NGOs of Northern Cyprus,

Esteemed President and Members of our MÜSİAD Cyprus Branch,

Esteemed Members of the Press,

I respectfully greet you all at our General Assembly; welcome.

Distinguished Guests,

From the first months of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic became the main agenda of all countries. This process, which began in 2019, took the whole world under its influence in 2020. The effects of the process, which continued in 2021 as well, will continue for some time longer.

Despite all the negative effects of Covid-19, the case numbers that exceeded expectations under pandemic conditions and the increases relating to lockdown measures, the growth of 7.0 percent achieved in the first quarter of 2021 has been a serious step taken by the Turkish economy towards its growth target for 2021 as a whole.

Although the available data point to more moderate growth rates for the other quarters of the year, this high growth rate observed in the first quarter shows that annual growth will converge on the growth target of %5.8.

GDP, which contracted sharply in the second quarter of 2020 under the effect of Covid-19, will sustain its positive growth in the second quarter of the year through the base effect, even though that quarter passes more sluggishly compared with the first.

Despite the relative recoveries seen in the economies of many countries and the acceleration observed in global economic activity, we can state that Türkiye will decouple positively from other countries throughout 2021 as well, as it did in 2020.

The Republic of Türkiye, the only country that officially recognizes the TRNC at the international level, is, as you know, in the position of being the sole bridge connecting the country to the world economically.

Türkiye, the state with the largest share in the foreign trade of the TRNC, which has an economy of approximately USD 4 billion, has total annual exports to the country at an average level of USD 1 billion. The TRNC's annual exports to Türkiye, on the other hand, vary between an average of USD 50 and 60 million.

In 2020, while Türkiye's exports to the TRNC fell by %33.7 compared with the previous year, declining from USD 1.3 billion to USD 860 million, the TRNC's exports to Türkiye recorded an increase of approximately %30, rising from USD 62 million to USD 80 million.

Thus, in the period in question, its trade with Türkiye covered %71 of the TRNC's total exports and %79 of its total imports.

In general terms, the export sector in the TRNC encounters serious problems because of the isolations and embargoes applied in the international arena. In particular, the decisions taken by the EU Court of Justice have prevented the export of many products to the EU. However, with the market opportunities and other support provided by Türkiye, the export sector is trying to stay on its feet.

In this respect, it is very important to identify and increase the concrete areas of opportunity in which the business worlds of the two countries can increase their mutual activities. Within this framework, we must continue to focus on mutual win-win strategies that envisage not only increasing the shares the Turkish and TRNC economies receive from one another, but also the sustainable growth of both economies.

As MÜSİAD, while continuing our work within this scope, we recently conveyed our views and proposals regarding the Action Plan study prepared by the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye with the aim of developing our commercial and economic relations with the TRNC.

On the other hand, we paid a visit to the President of the TRNC, Honourable Ersin Tatar, and the Prime Minister of the TRNC, Honourable Ersan Saner, and held a detailed meeting with them.

Afterwards, we attended the Türkiye-TRNC Business Forum and held consultations on sustaining regional cooperation by strengthening it.

We believe that the TRNC, which we believe carries serious potential in the sectors of Tourism above all, as well as Transport, Agency Services, Solar Energy, Furniture, Citrus Fruits and dairy products, can also diversify its relations with other countries and increase its cooperation through correct policies and planning.

As you know, the decision was taken to open Closed Maraş to tourism; this may be an important area of cooperation for the business worlds of our countries.

With the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Water Supply Project, which has come into operation, the water of our Anatolia reaches our baby homeland, our brothers and sisters in Northern Cyprus. What a great source of pride and happiness this is for us.

Dear friends, the Turkish people have a strong bond of the heart with Northern Cyprus and with the people of Northern Cyprus. We witnessed this bond clearly during the Covid-19 Pandemic that deeply affected the whole world as well. Alongside moral support, Türkiye also did not leave its brothers alone, sending vaccines to the TRNC.

As a manifestation of this bond, we must develop the partnerships we carry out in every field in order to be even stronger together in the future.

Distinguished Guests,

As you know, as MÜSİAD we launched our renewal process with the aim of preparing in advance for the new world system. Our motto at the outset was “together”.

We have fulfilled almost all the initiatives 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 developing the culture of partnership among our members.

A total of 23 committees under the roof of the MÜSİAD ASSEMBLY have begun, with projects compatible with their own thematic or sectoral fields, to gather the potential investors and industrialists in Anatolia around specific projects.

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, by building living and production zones in which all the needs of our small-scale companies — which have difficulty producing in narrow spaces and therefore cannot attain economies of scale — are met in the same environment, turn them in time into institutionalized companies ready to move to organized industrial zones. We have completed the first prototype of this model, and we have also begun the construction of the second.

We must establish production bases for epidemics and disasters that are likely to recur. By establishing production bases, it becomes possible to protect companies, employees and production in the event of an epidemic or a severe disaster, and to sustain them without a full lockdown.

On the other hand, with our Smart Agricultural Cities Project we have launched an initiative in order to encourage rural development and, in this way, to support reverse migration and attain a homogeneous population structure.

We presented this as a model to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

With the Smart Agricultural Cities Model, we have developed an initiative to encourage rural life and 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 in order 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 purchase and sale platform; and, in line with the 2023 targets, growing selected SMEs in 23 locations in 20 places so as to turn them into Türkiye and World Brands. This and many other projects have been the fruits of MÜSİAD's renewal adventure.

We have created a MÜSİAD Brand in 6 fundamental fields in line with Türkiye's 6 fundamental strategies:

MÜSİAD INNOVA ( MÜSİAD YENİLİK), in order to adapt to the conditions of innovation management and digital transformation.

MÜSİAD FUTURE (MÜSİAD GELECEK), in order to develop the strategic sectors and business models of the future,

MÜSİAD AKADEMİ, in order to turn education into a MÜSİAD school and to give it an institutional identity.

2023 YER-EL (20 YER 23 EL), which covers work directed at our Anatolian companies in order to bring World Brands out of Türkiye by increasing branding and companies' brand values, and to turn our SMEs into large-scale institutional brands,

MÜSİAD INVEST (MÜSİAD YATIRIM), in order to turn the credibility advantage of the MÜSİAD Brand in Türkiye's investment strategies, its field presence and savings kept under the mattress into mass investments and partnerships, and to establish the systematics of investment funds,

MÜSİAD TIA (MÜSİAD TİCARET ve YATIRIM AJANSLARI), which we designed together with the Presidency Investment Office in order to promote Türkiye as an investment and trade market for direct foreign investors, and to make MÜSİAD's field presence abroad work like a trade and investment system.

You, all our branches and our networks abroad, will be subject to this integration in the new presidential term, picking up from where we left off, and, God willing, you will be instrumental in our process carrying our MÜSİAD much further forward. If it is our lot, we will be in Cyprus at the beginning of July.

Esteemed Guests,

As I conclude my remarks here, I wish that our branch's general assembly may be a means to goodness, I thank Okyay Bey, who is handing over his duty, and I wish success to Ramazan Bey, who is taking over the duty, and to his board. I wish that our branch's contributions to the business world of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue and increase. I thank Fatih Keçebir Bey, president of the MÜSİAD global high board, and our foreign relations coordinators. I greet you all with respect and affection.

Abdurrahman KAAN

President of MÜSİAD