MÜSİAD – BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION ORGANIZATION(BSEC) INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY SUMMIT
22 JUNE 2021
GEBZE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
Honourable Deputy Minister,
Honourable Deputy Governor
Honourable Deputy Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality,
Honourable Rector,
Honourable Secretary General of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization
Our esteemed Consuls General, our Trade Attachés,
Our esteemed district governors
Our esteemed district Mayors
Esteemed Members of the MÜSİAD Board of Directors,
The esteemed President and Members of our Gebze Branch
Esteemed Representatives of the Business, Academic and Political Worlds, of the Chambers and of the NGOs,
Esteemed Representatives of our Local and National Press,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I greet you all with respect at this important program that has brought us together in Gebze; welcome, we are delighted to have you here.
Esteemed Guests,
As MÜSİAD, we also support with international diplomacy activities the initiatives we undertake in order to develop trade and to increase the contributions we make to our country.
We consider the International Diplomacy Summit Programs we have implemented within this scope to be extremely important, not only from a commercial point of view, but also because they are organizations that bring together the business and political worlds of our countries and that enable us to get to know one another better.
Indeed, the outputs we obtain at the end of our meetings and our commercial and humanitarian gains prove us right.
On this occasion, I hope that this organization of ours will also lead to fruitful results.
As you know, the removal of obstacles to trade, which is among the priority objectives of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, also constitutes one of the greatest steps towards increasing trade between regions.
Within this framework, when we as business people are able to conduct diplomacy together with our own potential and effort in doing business, economic developments emerge that can be clearly observed over the years.
The world today is passing through days in which the importance of countries preserving their own strength, being able to be self-sufficient and having a say in international competition is emphasised. Today, as in the past, the picture created by mass crises shows that countries which walk alone fall behind in eliminating the adverse conditions and consequences brought about by the crisis, and that they are left alone in this matter.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected the whole world since the first months of last year and has brought with it a global crisis, has once again demonstrated how important a joint struggle is.
With the pandemic, we witnessed that Türkiye’s already existing potential to be an important production, trade and logistics base has emerged even more clearly.
As we have always stated, when we make good use of the opportunities before us, there is no obstacle whatsoever preventing us as Turkish industrialists from delivering our products to the whole world. This period has once again demonstrated how accurate this idea is.
Esteemed Guests,
As MÜSİAD, we are present in 7 countries that are among the member states of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, namely Georgia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, and at 225 points in a total of 95 countries worldwide. We provide employment for 2 million people.
Therefore, by also making use of our presence abroad, we aim to develop relations between our countries and to advance socio-economic relations through the cooperation agreements we will conclude via public and private institutions and NGOs.
As MÜSİAD, we will continue to support our state with the experience we have globally in developing relations between countries, as we do in every step it takes in foreign policy.
As you know, in November 2020 we held our MÜSİAD EXPO 2020 trade fair — which encourages our business people to open up to every country in the world and thus helps develop their foreign trade, and which is the largest fair held during the pandemic period — with the broad participation of 15,000 people from 102 countries.
MÜSİAD EXPO, which we held at İstanbul TÜYAP and which was attended by business people, politicians and academics from every region of the world and visited by our Honourable President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, enabled our business people to open up to new collaborations while also allowing foreign investors to examine closely the investment opportunities in our country.
On the other hand, within the framework of EXPO 2020, we hosted our friends from every corner of the world by holding the WORLD HONORARY CONSULS TRADE and DIPLOMACY SUMMIT.
As you know, behind every commercial relationship conducted with individuals, institutions or countries there is in fact a network of relations, a whole of social relations and a successful communication process.
In this respect, as MÜSİAD we act with this awareness and, in order to develop our relations with every country in the world still further, we continue to expand our international organizations, above all EXPO.
We are always willing to support our Türkiye’s production-based and technology-oriented growth drive, and we work with all our might in this direction.
At this point, as MÜSİAD, I would like to state once again that we are always ready to do our utmost, both as the head office and together with our branches.
In this context, in the name of investment diplomacy, we want to turn our strong branches abroad into investment and trade agencies and to increase economic cooperation between countries.
Esteemed Guests,
Especially in the recent period, we have witnessed a number of negative developments at state level in the region that is the subject of our meeting. Nevertheless, the fact that we are here today also shows that, on the other hand, there is a strong desire to live together in peace. The concept of coopetition.
Therefore, we are now determined to embrace this desire. Striving to make the Black Sea a “sea of peace” and taking our steps in this direction must be a priority for all of us.
As business people, we must support this effort as much as we can.
As I conclude my remarks with these feelings, I thank first of all our Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Faruk and the chairman of our MÜSİAD Diplomatic Relations Committee Mr Zeki, as well as our MÜSİAD Gebze Branch and everyone who contributed to this organization.
Hoping that our organization will produce beneficial results, I greet you with respect and affection.
Abdurrahman KAAN
President of MÜSİAD
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD