GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPEECH

İNEGÖL / 16 January 2023

Honourable Governor,

Honourable District Governor,

Honourable Member of Parliament,

Honourable Mayor,

Honourable Rector,

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

Honourable President of our İnegöl Branch,

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

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

Esteemed MÜSİAD Members,

My Young MÜSİAD Brothers and Sisters,

Esteemed Members of the Press,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I greet you all with respect and affection.

We are very happy to be together with you in İnegöl today.

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

Our esteemed members, distinguished guests,

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

MÜSİAD is a global cooperation and capital platform, and at the same time a development movement that draws its strength from our rich values of civilization and from Anatolian wisdom. The members of this movement always keep their hopes alive, work sincerely and honestly, and never abandon their ideals.

MÜSİAD members order their lives shaped by the consciousness and culture of the Akhi tradition.

They always run with love in order to earn the good pleasure of the Truth. As the Great Master Neşet Ertaş said, “He who runs with love does not tire.” We too continue to run with love.

Last weekend Konya and Karaman; the week before, Gebze and Sakarya, and today we are here... And again this week Zonguldak Ereğli, İzmir, Mersin and Adana; and so we continue to travel every inch of our country and to explain our mission.

Esteemed guests, dear friends,

İnegöl, with its constantly growing and developing production and employment and the exports rising alongside them, is one of the rising star regions of the Turkish economy.

With its proximity to the ports for sea transport and its proximity to Yenişehir Airport for air transport, and because it lies at an equal distance from our country's three largest cities, İnegöl is in a position to create a market share in economic terms.

With the 3 organized industrial zones it hosts, İnegöl adds serious value to the Turkish economy.

While 2000 furniture firms large and small operate in İnegöl, which is described as the heart of furniture, İnegöl furniture also possesses very strong furniture brands addressing the domestic market and foreign countries in terms of production, marketing, foreign trade and trade fairs.

Today, with a trade volume exceeding USD 1 billion and a foreign trade surplus approaching USD 700 million, İnegöl exports on its own to more than 150 countries.

I wholeheartedly congratulate our business people friends from İnegöl and wish them continued success.

Esteemed guests,

After an intensive and productive year, we are working to accomplish 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 1300 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 city of Konya, 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 2000 businessmen from 40 countries in our Konya.

We invite all our businessmen to this important summit of ours from now on, and we hope that it will bring blessings to our country and to our region.

If we summarize our activities for the first four months of this year: the Saudi Arabia business trip on 11-19 February, the International Young Businessmen Congress (UGİK) on 23 February, the Young MÜSİAD General Assembly on 4 March, the United States trip on 5-9 March, the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on 10-12 March, the Industry Summit on 21 March… Along with this rich calendar of activities, we will welcome the holy month of Ramadan on 23 March, God willing. During Ramadan we will hold our branch iftar and sahur programmes. And on 30 April we will hold our 27th Ordinary General Assembly of MÜSİAD.

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

There are difficult and sharp crossroads ahead of us that we must pass. We believe that by passing these crossroads all together, we will begin a new period of surging forward in the 100th Anniversary of our Republic and at the very beginning of the Century of Türkiye.

Esteemed guests, my dear brothers and sisters,

General assemblies are periods of renewal and revitalization. As MÜSİAD, by running day and night, by constantly renewing ourselves 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 continually broadening our field of influence we are deepening it. With our sector boards and our rich organizational structure, we penetrate as far as the capillaries of our economy.

It is very important for our Branch General Assemblies to be productive in order to make this strong structure of ours sustainable. In this regard, I hope that the general assembly of our İnegöl branch will be successful and that its results will be beneficial. I congratulate our esteemed members of the board of directors who served in the previous term. I would especially like to thank my esteemed brother President Mehmet Döngel. May God be pleased with them. I wholeheartedly wish success to the president and the friends who will be newly elected and take office.

These duties are sacred trusts for us. We can only do justice to this trust by trembling over it with sensitivity and by handing it over to our new friends when the time comes. At this point I would like to underline one matter as important: handing over duties is not a kind of retirement; on the contrary, it requires embracing our cause and our institution even more. Our presidency and our other duties may come to an end, but our responsibilities continue for as long as we live. We have a cliché saying: MÜSİAD has no retired members, only departed ones.

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. With this consciousness, God willing, together we will write very great success stories and hand over a more prosperous country to the new generations.

As I bring my words to an end with these feelings and thoughts, I once again hope 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