GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPEECH
MERSİN / 23 January 2023
Honourable Minister,
Honourable Governor,
Honourable Member of Parliament,
Honourable Rector,
Esteemed Presidents and Representatives of the Business and Political World, of NGOs and of our Chambers,
Honourable President of our Mersin 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.
Welcome to our Mersin General Assembly, you have honoured us.
Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I pray to Almighty God that our General Assembly may be a means of goodness.
I would like to express the pleasure I feel at being together with you in Mersin today.
Our esteemed members, distinguished guests,
MÜSİAD, which has reached a total of 165 branches and contact points in the international arena, with its more than 13 thousand members and nearly 60 thousand companies, both provides added value to the Turkish economy and pioneers the development of collaborations in different fields and on different scales 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. As today's standard-bearers of this movement, we 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.”
Last weekend Konya and Karaman; the week before, Gebze and Sakarya; last week we were in İnegöl, Bursa and Karadeniz Ereğli, and now we are here... And again in the coming days Adana, Antalya, Denizli, Tokat and Kayseri; and so we continue to travel every inch of our country and to explain our mission.
Esteemed guests, dear friends,
Our Mersin, one of Türkiye's cities that are developed in every respect, draws attention with its fertile lands, its developed industry, its rich mineral resources, the port of Mersin and its oil refinery.
In 2022, Mersin's total exports recorded an increase of %15.4 compared to the previous year and reached a level of approximately USD 3.0 billion. With this performance, Mersin succeeded in becoming Türkiye's 14th largest exporting province in the period in question.
Cereals/Pulses; Fresh Fruit/Vegetables and Chemical Substances, which take the top 3 places in the province's exports, draw attention as the prominent sectors. Cereals/Pulses and Fresh Fruit/Vegetables exports make up %53.5 of Mersin's total exports.
In Mersin, which displayed a highly successful performance by exporting to a total of 176 countries in 2022, the 3 countries to which the most exports were made were, respectively, Iraq, Russia and Germany.
I wholeheartedly congratulate our business people friends from Mersin. As the MÜSİAD family, we will all together continue to strive for trade and industry to develop even further in our Mersin.
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.
Again, I would 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 United States 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… 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 29 April we will hold our 27th Ordinary General Assembly of MÜSİAD.
We have prepared our Strategic Plan concerning 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.
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 flag and 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 Mersin 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. May God be pleased with them. I wholeheartedly wish success to our friends who will newly take office. These duties are sacred trusts for us. We can do justice to this trust by trembling over it with sensitivity and by handing it over to our new friends when the time comes.
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, and God willing we will all together begin a new period of surging forward.
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