MÜSİAD KARS BRANCH OPENING

16 NOVEMBER 2019

PROTOCOL (?)

Esteemed Representatives of the Business World,

Esteemed Members and Friends of MÜSİAD,

Esteemed Members of Our Local and National Press,

Today we are excited and proud to be adding one more roof to the MÜSİAD family. We are delighted to be together with you in order to share this excitement.

At our event, where we have come together on the occasion of the opening of MÜSİAD Kars,

I respectfully greet you all; welcome, you have graced us with your presence.

Distinguished Guests,

Today we are in a very special geography. We are in the ancient city of Kars, which has hosted many civilizations and holds a great cultural accumulation. From its hospitable people to its gastronomic richness and its natural beauties, we encounter a great many elements that make these lands special.

It is not only we who appreciate the value of the region; the whole world does. We see that tourism activity in the region is developing with rising momentum every year. The popularity that the Eastern Express has gained in recent times has brought about a significant revival in the region's tourism.

Tourism constitutes one of the region's important sources of livelihood. However, we must both attract greater interest from domestic and foreign tourists here and increase investment by ensuring diversity in tourism.

When we look at commercial activity and the city's economy, we do not encounter a picture that pleases us much. While it presents a positive appearance in commercial activity directed at the domestic market, unfortunately it is in a rather weak position on the export side.

Kars, which exported USD 807 thousand in 2002, achieved a historic success with USD 57.4 million in 2007.

The Kars economy, which suffered a serious loss of exports in the following years, was able to realize exports of only USD 188 thousand as of 2018. The city has an economic structure based on livestock breeding within the agricultural sector. The presence of extensive pastures and meadows has made agriculture and livestock breeding the most important sector for the Kars economy.

Indeed, the agriculture and livestock sector provides %55 of the province's total employment.

In this respect, we see that Kars holds significant potential for trade in live animals and animal products.

We clearly see that agriculture and livestock breeding are of importance not only for Kars but for the whole of the Eastern Anatolia Region.

The weight of agriculture and livestock breeding is striking in all the provinces of Eastern Anatolia, which realized a total of USD 783 million in exports in 2018. In the same period, Türkiye's total agricultural exports reached the level of USD 22.7 billion. Therefore, we must say that we need to attach far greater importance to Eastern Anatolia in investments directed at the sector.

Because our country, despite its suitable ecology and high agricultural potential, is unable to benefit fully from world trade in agricultural products. Today %30 of Türkiye's exports is realized by agriculture-based industries.

In other words, the sectors that essentially earn net foreign currency for Türkiye and do not run a trade deficit fall solely within the category of agriculture and agriculture-based industry.

For this reason we must make greater use, in our favour, of the climate, soil, population and biological diversity our country possesses in global competition in agricultural products. Distinguished Guests,

With its strong organizational network and the valuable bond among its members and friends, MÜSİAD is an effective and powerful capital platform of a kind rarely seen in the world. The data MÜSİAD gathers thanks to this bond and its ability to process that data are among the greatest indicators of its strength in the field. For this reason MÜSİAD stands at a key point in regional development, which is one of the important conditions for achieving holistic development.

We are expanding our fields of activity all over the world while, on the other hand, weaving a strong network in our country and reaching every one of our cities.

Alongside general matters, we also identify local problems and develop proposals for their solution. Unlike other NGOs, MÜSİAD makes a great contribution to regional development.

Thanks to our broad organizational network, we reach micro data directly. In regional development, this is a great advantage in terms of obtaining micro and macro data together.

One of the most important headings Türkiye needs today on the path to holistic development is “Rural Development”. Rural Development is of great importance for us to reach the points we target in food, agriculture and livestock breeding, one of the strategic sectors we have identified as MÜSİAD.

At this point, within the scope of the Renewal Process, we have put forward a project named “Rural Towns”. In order to bring this project of ours to life, we have established a committee named “Rural Transformation and Development in Livestock Breeding”.

Rural Town has been created as an umbrella concept expressing rural transformation and the understanding of rural development.

First of all, we need to create a strong perception so that the rural town approach gains acceptance in our society.

Because the prejudices formed against our people who live in villages and make their living from farming and livestock breeding stand before us as one of the greatest obstacles to development in this field.

By bringing urban comfort to the countryside as far as possible, we must create an attraction towards rural life.

We must redesign life in the countryside in terms of infrastructure and suitability for agricultural production. This planning must be carried out in a way that can attract the interest of young people in particular.

According to our project, we will shape rural towns as settlements of 5 thousand or 2 thousand people. In the world there are cities that would suit each and every one of our 81 provinces exactly. At this point, by examining on site the systems successfully carried out abroad, we must work on a real and applicable system unique to our country. Every city must have its own identity.

As MÜSİAD we make our plans, and we share them with everyone who acts in line with our country's interests, foremost with policy makers.

We know that a Türkiye that achieves rural development will have great motivation on the path to holistic development. Of course this will also constitute a great driving force in our goal of being among the world's top 10 economies.

As business people devoted to their country, their state and their nation, we are always ready to put our shoulder to the wheel for this goal.

We are aware of the reality our country is in; we read and analyse correctly the difficult period ahead of us.

As business people, we also analyse well how we will get through this period.

We will be bold. We will not be afraid of investing and of diversifying our commercial activities.

We say these things as an NGO present at 312 points, based on the real data we have obtained.

As you know, in August of last year we were exposed to serious exchange rate attacks and a significant stagnation was experienced in the markets.

As a result of the correct moves of our economic administration, this period was overcome rapidly.

Today the Turkish economy is moving towards positive growth despite the negative growth expectations at the beginning of the year.

In the period ahead we expect interest rates to fall to lower levels. This development, which will be reflected positively in investment, will halt the contraction, and from the last quarter of the year a positive growth process will begin once again. Esteemed Guests,

As MÜSİAD, we work with all our strength so that our country attains a structure that grows by producing.

We spend our energy on building Türkiye's future in the best possible way. This is the whole of our effort, our concern and our aim.

We work to produce together and to grow together with our members at home and abroad and with all our friends.

As business people of MÜSİAD, we have regarded our country's development and prosperity as our priority.

With this responsibility, we come together with business people in all four corners of the world and walk together towards our country's common goals.

We strive to strengthen still further our powerful organizational network and the strong bond among our members.

Praise be to God, this effort enables us to reach our members and friends at almost every point of the world.

While strengthening our commercial activities, we put forward projects in many different fields.

We share the outputs of our projects with our economic administration, with policy makers and with the public.

Today a powerful transformation is taking place in the world. Countries, states, companies and individuals determine their future direction according to this transformation.

As MÜSİAD, we too have launched our own institutional and structural transformations.

We continue the process of change we have named Renewal while remaining faithful to the values we have been attached to for 30 years and to our founding purposes.

We summarize the renewal process, which represents a long journey, as changing our own habits of management and practice.

Renewal was launched in order to make MÜSİAD's field of influence and power more effective and more productive.

With renewal, we will walk with greater resolve towards the goals we have set before us.

In the new period too, we will continue to process and produce all the data we have gathered by keeping our finger on the pulse of the field, in line with the interests of our members and our country.

All together, we will reach the goal of a Türkiye that grows by producing.

Distinguished Guests,

As I bring my remarks to a close, I hope that our new branch will bring good things to our country, above all to Kars and Eastern Anatolia.

I wish our branch president success in the belief that they will undertake beneficial work, and I thank everyone who contributed to this fine event.

Abdurrahman Kaan

President of MÜSİAD