MÜSİAD New York Branch Opening

19 May 2024

Dear friends, esteemed MÜSİAD Family,

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

I greet you all with respect…

Welcome to our New York Branch opening, you have brought us joy…

Esteemed members of MÜSİAD,

Imagine a civil society organization that is known for representing 60 thousand enterprises with its more than 14 thousand members at home and abroad and for providing employment to approximately 2 million people. It serves in 81 countries with 85 contact points at home and up to 100 abroad.

The name of this “civil society organization”, which has worked tirelessly since its very first day with the principle of “High Morality, High Technology” and which carries out intensive “commercial diplomacy” activities in the national and international arena, is MÜSİAD.

From 1990 to the present day, MÜSİAD has entered into a very strong and effective organizational structure through the branches and representative offices it has opened both in our country and abroad. It has always been a pioneer and a guide in organization.

Because one of MÜSİAD’s most important reasons for existence is to build a strong and lasting organizational structure. Whether at home or abroad, MÜSİAD has always believed in the power of organization in order to raise its contact with its members to the highest level.

Today, too, we are taking another very fine step for the sake of our organization, and we are opening our New York branch.

Thanks be to God, on this occasion we also experience the happiness of being together with our brothers and sisters in America, thousands of kilometres away from our country, and of easing our longing.

Esteemed members of MÜSİAD,

As we develop our organizational structure, we continue to open our branches and representative offices in very different geographies of the world, as we do in Türkiye, and to further strengthen our sphere of influence; from Asia to Europe and from Africa to Australia, we continue to expand our network in 81 countries of the world.

Our New York branch will, God willing, be a branch that strengthens our contact and in which we will make new breakthroughs on the path of service both to our members and to our country.

Esteemed members of MÜSİAD,

Throughout the historical process, the USA has been a country with which we have formed very important economic and commercial partnerships. The trade between the two countries, which has largely proceeded in favour of the USA, turned in favour of our country as of 2021 in particular and recorded an increase in our country’s favour in 2022. However, by 2023 it once again resulted in favour of the USA.

In 2023, Türkiye’s exports to the USA, which recorded a decrease of %12.2 compared to the previous year, stood at 14.8 billion dollars. In the same period, Türkiye’s imports from the USA recorded an increase of %3.6 and amounted to 15.8 billion dollars. Thus, in 2023 there was a trade deficit of 951.7 million dollars against Türkiye, while the trade volume between Türkiye and the USA declined to 30.6 billion dollars (from the record level of 32.1 billion dollars of the previous year).

When we look at the January-March period of 2024, Türkiye’s exports to the USA recorded an increase of %6.1 compared to the same period of the previous year, rising to 3.8 billion dollars, while in the same period Türkiye’s imports from the USA recorded an increase of %12.5 and stood at approximately 4.2 billion dollars.

Between 2002 and 2023, the total amount of foreign direct investment made from the USA to Türkiye stands at 14.7 billion dollars. In the same period, the amount of direct investment made from Türkiye to the USA is approximately 11 billion dollars.

God willing, in the coming period we aim to increase this level through our commercial diplomacy activities and to raise it to a level that will be in our country’s favour.

For this we will work very hard and strive very much. May God be our helper and guide.

Esteemed MÜSİAD Family,

The Turkish population living in America today is around 300 thousand. We will endeavour to strengthen our contact with our kinsmen here. As MÜSİAD, together with our branch in New York, we will make an effort to accelerate commercial relations and to establish new forms of cooperation both for our members and for the citizens of the two countries. In this way, we foresee that, alongside our commercial relations, our cultural relations will also become stronger.

May God be pleased with everyone who contributed to our branch opening. May God not let our efforts go to waste.

Dear friends,

As I complete my remarks here, I thank all those who love MÜSİAD, from our founding cadre who contributed to bringing our MÜSİAD to this day, to the newest member who has joined our family. I pray for God’s mercy upon those who have passed away from among us.

MÜSİAD has come to this day with faith, with love of the cause and with patience. God willing, by working night and day with determination, with God’s permission we will also shape the future “as one and together”.

I hope that the opening of our New York Branch will bring good things above all to the MÜSİAD community, and to our country and our nation. I greet you all with my most sincere feelings…

May God protect you.

Mahmut Asmalı

President of MÜSİAD