GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPEECH

İZMİR / 20 January 2023

Honourable Governor,

Honourable Member of Parliament,

Honourable Rector,

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

My Honourable İzmir Branch President

Distinguished Members of the Board of Directors and my Former Branch Presidents,

Esteemed Presidents of our Branches who have come from the 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.

Welcome to our İzmir General Assembly; you have honoured us.

First of all, I pray to Almighty God that our General Assembly may be a means of good.

I would like to express the pleasure I feel at being together with you in İzmir today.

Our esteemed members, distinguished guests,

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

MÜSİAD is a global platform of cooperation and capital, but it is just as much a development movement that draws its strength from our rich values of civilization and from the wisdom of Anatolia. As today’s flag bearers of this movement, we always run with love in order to earn the pleasure of the Truth. As the Great Master Neşet Ertaş said: “Whoever runs with love never grows weary.”

Last weekend we were in Konya and Karaman; the week before in Gebze and Sakarya; at the beginning of this week in İnegöl, Bursa and Karadeniz Ereğli, and now we are here... And in the days ahead, in Mersin, Adana, Antalya, Denizli, Tokat and Kayseri, we continue to travel every inch of our country and to explain our mission.

Esteemed guests, dear friends,

After a highly successful year, we are working to carry out 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 1,300 Turkish and Arab businesspeople, took its place in our history as the largest business forum in the Middle East. This year, in our city of Konya — the centre of agriculture, food and industry, the capital of the Seljuk State, the city where trade and history meet — we will hold the 3rd Turkish-Arab Business Summit. 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 2,000 businesspeople from 40 countries in our Konya.

With the bilateral business meetings and the fair organization that we will hold within the scope of the Summit, we want to increase the international commercial integration of our industrialists and our businesspeople. And with the “Food Safety and the Preservation of the Generations” conference to be held within the scope of the Summit, we will, God willing, fulfil an important responsibility by drawing attention to food safety, one of the most strategic issues of our day, and to the effects of food on the human generation.

On this occasion, we invite all our businesspeople from now on to the 3rd Turkish-Arab Business Summit that we will hold in our Konya on 5-7 May 2023, and we hope that it will bring good to our country and to our region.

Esteemed guests, dear friends,

The economy of İzmir, which has a multifaceted structure, is based on industry, agriculture, trade and tourism. İzmir, which ranks third in the manufacturing industry after İstanbul and Kocaeli, is Türkiye’s largest export port. With its natural beauties and historical riches, its road, rail, air and sea transport and its sufficient accommodation facilities and infrastructure, its tourism sector is developing with each passing day.

İzmir, which increased its exports by %13.9 in 2022 compared with the previous year, made a serious contribution to our country’s growth supported by external demand. In this period İzmir succeeded in ranking 4th among our provinces with the highest exports, with a total of USD 13.9 billion.

The groups that stood out in the said exports were chemical substances and their products, ready-made clothing and apparel, and steel.

In this period, in İzmir, which carried out exports of goods and services to a total of 211 countries, the first three places were taken by Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Esteemed guests,

After an intense and productive year, we are working to carry out 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 1,300 Turkish and Arab businesspeople, took its place in our history as the largest business forum in the Middle East. This year too, in our city of Konya, where trade and history meet, we will hold the 3rd Turkish-Arab Business Summit. 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 2,000 businesspeople from 40 countries in our Konya.

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

I would also like to summarize briefly for you the activities we will carry out in the first four months of this year;

After completing our branch general assemblies in January: the Saudi Arabia Business Trip on 11-19 February, the 8th International Young Businessmen Congress (UGİK) on 23 February, the General Administrative Board at our Head Office on 24-26 February, the Young MÜSİAD General Assembly on 4 March, the USA Trip on 5-9 March, the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on 10-12 March, the Japan and Malaysia Branch Openings on 13-20 March, the Industry Summit on 21 March… Together with this rich calendar of activities we will welcome the holy month of Ramadan on 23 March, God willing. During the month of Ramadan we will hold branch iftar and sahur programmes. And on 29 April we will hold our 27th MÜSİAD Ordinary General Assembly.

We have prepared our Strategic Plan for the new term; God willing, in line with this plan we will continue to work and to produce for our country and for all humanity.

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.

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

Ahead of us there are difficult and sharp crossroads that we have to pass through. We believe that, by passing through these crossroads all together, we will begin a new period of surging forward in the 100th Year 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 way, we preserve our dynamism and our enthusiasm. Together with MÜSİAD Women and Young MÜSİAD we are strengthening our family, and we are constantly deepening our sphere of influence by expanding it. With our sector boards and our rich organizational structure we penetrate down to the capillaries of our economy.

It is very important that our Branch General Assemblies pass productively in order to make this strong structure of ours sustainable. In this regard I hope that the general assembly of our İzmir branch will pass successfully and that its results will be auspicious. I congratulate our esteemed members of the board of directors who served in the previous term. I especially thank our esteemed President Mr. M. Bilal Saygılı. May God be pleased with him. I wholeheartedly wish success to the friends who will take up new duties. These duties are sacred trusts for us. Only by watching over this trust with great care and by handing it over to our new friends when the time comes can we do justice to it.

My dear brothers and sisters, our esteemed members,

As the MÜSİAD family we have very great responsibilities. In this sensitive period, completely abandoning personal ambitions and calculations, we will work selflessly, sincerely and with self-sacrifice for our nation and our country, we will produce, and with God’s permission we will together begin a new period of surging forward.

As I bring my words to an end with these feelings and thoughts, I once again wish that our general assembly may be a means of good, and I wish success to our brothers and sisters who will take up duties in the new term.

Stay well. May God protect you.

President of MÜSİAD

Mahmut Asmalı