Speech Text for the Opening Ceremony of the 26th IBF Congress, 3 November

Esteemed Guests,

I respectfully greet the presidents and members of our International Business Forum member associations and our business people, investors and entrepreneurs, with whom we have come together within the scope of the Opening Ceremony of the IBF Congress that we are holding for the 26th time as MÜSİAD in order to offer an innovative perspective to Türkiye’s leading investors, industrialists and entrepreneurs and to carry to a global scale the standard of the qualified labour force, production and quality service that we possess; welcome.

Esteemed Guests;

MÜSİAD has been working with great effort for more than 32 years for the material and spiritual development of Türkiye. MÜSİAD, which stands out as a non-profit organization and as Türkiye’s most widespread business world non-governmental organization, has reached 165 branches and contact points, with 84 at home and 81 abroad. With our more than 13 thousand members and the 60 thousand enterprises belonging to our members, we provide employment for 2 million people. We are Türkiye’s largest capital and cooperation platform, both locally and globally.

Esteemed Guests;

The IBF Congress, held under the leadership of MÜSİAD since 1995, aims to make sustainable the mission of establishing a global business network among Muslim businessmen by bringing together 42 businessmen’s associations from 25 countries every year. Indeed, deepening our partnerships with an understanding of “cooperation in every field and at every scale” is a serious responsibility for us.

We are crowning the 26th IBF Congress — which set out, together with the pioneering non-governmental organizations of many different countries from Türkiye to Algeria, from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, from Jordan to Tunisia, from Syria to Morocco, from Pakistan to Palestine, from Malaysia to Indonesia, in order to give direction to the joint trade and investment relations of Muslim businessmen worldwide — with MÜSİAD EXPO, which opened its doors for the 19th time in 2022.

Esteemed Guests;

The IBF Congress continues at full speed to encourage the establishment of economic ties between countries, the creation of sustainable cooperation models, the strengthening of communication and the acceleration of social and economic development. With the synergy of esteemed business people, investors and entrepreneurs coming from all four corners of the world, of our overseas branches, of more than 1000 business people from Canada, Türkiye, Europe, the USA, the Middle East, North Africa and Russia, and of the representatives of the other stakeholder countries that are forum members, we will prove the power of interaction of the IBF Congress to the whole world.

Esteemed Guests;

The construction of a trade network uniting continents through MÜSİAD EXPO 2022, designed with a fair concept reshaped in a changing world, will also offer different opportunities to IBF members. MÜSİAD EXPO 2022 stands out as a global organization at which IBF members and international entrepreneurs and investors will open up to brand-new markets and will establish dynamic collaborations.

Within the framework of the commercial research we conducted in order to expand the global sphere of influence of the 19th MÜSİAD EXPO, we will bring investors, entrepreneurs and exporters working in different product and service categories together directly with their counterparts. With our participants and visitors from 124 countries and 24 different sectors, we will bring a different perspective to the production and export cycle.

Esteemed Guests;

At MÜSİAD EXPO 2022 we have participants from Europe, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, that is, the MENA region. We will host purchasing delegations from more than 60 countries, above all Azerbaijan, Russia, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran and Algeria. Within this scope, we will enable entrepreneurs, investors, industrialists and business people from many countries to realise value-added collaborations.

We have full confidence that the B2B meetings to be held within the framework of MÜSİAD EXPO 2022 — which we are holding with a vision that will give direction to global and regional trade, which is positioned as the heart of commercial diplomacy, and at which we host more than 100 thousand visitors in a fair area of 90 thousand square metres with 25 thousand square metres of stand area — will produce positive results. The main theme on which we will focus at this year’s International Business Forum will be ‘Food Security and the Protection of Future Generations’. This year, for the first time, we will hold the D-8 Ambassadors Summit with the participation of the D-8 ambassadors. Within this scope, we will also hold the memorandum of understanding, the MoU signing ceremony.

Esteemed Guests;

We will also introduce the MÜSİAD International Investment Support Office — MÜSİAD Invest — at the MÜSİAD EXPO Fair. With MÜSİAD Invest we will undertake an advisory role by sharing accurate and sound commercial data. We will guide entrepreneurs who want to open up to global markets and foreign investors who want to invest in Türkiye.

At this point we aim to contribute to Türkiye’s export target of USD 300 billion for 2023. In the same way, with the MÜSİAD Trade Office we will guide our entrepreneurs and industrialists who want to open up to international markets. Türkiye, which has strengthened its logistics position still further with the mega projects developed over the last 20 years, continues with all its might to be the favourite of investors. We confirmed this interest during our business trip to the USA as well. We have an East Coast Strategy specific to the American region. In terms of logistics, our country is closer to the eastern region of America than many countries are. By making good use of this advantage, we will increase our impact in the USA and in the regional market. In this respect, the goal of completing our organization in the G20 countries, which we set out when we took office in September 2021, is also of great importance. In the near future we will make our organization in Mexico operational, and with our work in Argentina we will complete this goal of ours.

Not only in the USA, but also during our business trip to Uzbekistan and in our contacts in European countries, we witnessed a positive picture towards our country. The economic world order that has been reshaped after the pandemic holds great opportunities for Türkiye. Steps to be taken at the right time will enable us to make the best possible use of the opportunities.

Esteemed Guests,

In closing my remarks, I extend my thanks to our esteemed participants with whom we are together within the scope of the Opening Ceremony of the 26th IBF Congress, and we hope that the IBF Congress will lead to the establishment of new collaborations.

May our congress be fruitful, may our brotherhood and our cooperation be everlasting.

Stay well, may God protect you...

Mahmut Asmalı

President of MÜSİAD