MÜSİAD “Power of Türkiye Awards” Ceremony Press Launch Meeting

17 April 2024

Esteemed Members of the Press,

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

I greet you all with respect, affection and reverence.

Welcome to the Press Launch Meeting of our “Power of Türkiye Awards” Ceremony, which MÜSİAD will hold next month; we are delighted to have you here…

Esteemed Members of the Press,

As you all know, MÜSİAD has produced many important initiatives and events over the years. In each of them, our priority as MÜSİAD has always been to provide motivation by rewarding production, success, women's entrepreneurship, strong communication and values, academic knowledge, sustainability and transformation, virtuous entrepreneurship — in short, the investment and research activities that generate added value for our country.

Today we will hold our Power of Türkiye Awards program — which brings together the highly important awards we have organized for years, and which we will hold for the second time this year with a renewed face — on 9 May at the Atatürk Cultural Centre.

This awards ceremony, which will be comprehensive and highly influential, brings together the “Türkiye Economy Press Awards”, which we have organized 17 times to date, and the “Science and Technology Awards”, which we have organized a total of 6 times, under the roof of the “Power of Türkiye Awards”.

Our ceremony, the first of which we held in 2022 under the name “Power of Türkiye Awards”, was organized with the participation of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On that occasion we presented the Power of Türkiye Special Award to our esteemed President.

Our Power of Türkiye Awards will be presented to those who stand out with their successful work in the fields of production, young entrepreneurship, communication, values, sustainability, women's entrepreneurship, academia, transformation and branding.

At our awards ceremony, which we will hold with the participation of representatives of the business world, academics, politicians, artists and members of the press, we will present awards in 9 separate categories at the national level.

The categories of our Power of Türkiye Awards will be as follows:

  • The Power of Production
  • The Power of the Young Entrepreneur
  • The Power of Communication
  • The Power of Values
  • The Power of Sustainability
  • The Power of Women
  • The Power of Academia
  • The Power of Transformation
  • The Power of the Brand

All the information regarding the conditions, the method and the entire application process for our award is also available on our website at turkiyeningucu.com.

Dear friends,

As MÜSİAD, through the many events and initiatives we have organized over the years, we make a great effort to provide pioneering new sources of motivation in our country's business world.

Through our International Business Forums, our Visionary meetings, our Power of Türkiye Awards, our MÜSİAD EXPO Fair, our MÜSİAD Women International Awareness Summit, the sectoral meetings we hold and the international business summits and organizations we arrange, we always strive to support hard work and effort.

Esteemed Members of the Press,

In this context, I would first like to tell you in broad outline about the main events we will be holding in the coming days:

  • Last month we held the IBF International Business Forum, which is among our most important organizations. Our fair and forum event, held in Saudi Arabia between 3-11 March 2024, was extremely productive within the scope of the Economic Forum Summit, B2B meetings, the fair, and the meetings with chambers of commerce held in Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca and Medina.
  • Our MÜSİAD EXPO Fair, which will take place this coming November, is also among the extremely important events that are held every two years and that matter a great deal to us. Our fair, which we organize in order to increase the effectiveness of our country and our business world in global markets, brings together the leading names of the business and political worlds with an ever-increasing number of participants and sectoral diversity each passing year.

Our fair, organized with the support of our Ministry of Trade, will bring together 522 companies from 24 different sectors and close to 75 thousand visitors from 121 countries… The MÜSİAD EXPO Fair will be held on 26-29 November 2024 at TÜYAP with foreign purchasing delegations and in-fair events, with the honour of the presence of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and with the participation both of our ministers and leading figures of the bureaucracy and of ministers from different countries, God willing.

  • Another important organization we will hold in 2024 will be our MÜSİAD Women International Awareness Summit program… This important event of ours, the first of which we organized last year with the theme “Transformation Begins With Us”, will stand out with its panels titled “Environment and Health”, “Migration”, “Entrepreneurship”, and “Digital and Family”.

Our summit, which will be held on 12 October 2024, again at the Atatürk Cultural Centre, is at the same time among the most important events of MÜSİAD Women.

Esteemed Members of the Press,

As business people, we work tirelessly with the passion of always carrying our country higher in economic terms. God willing, in 2024 we will continue our work without slowing down, with the “Century of Türkiye” goal pointed out by our esteemed President.

The Turkish economy, which grew by %4 in the last quarter of 2023, achieved growth of %4.5 over the whole of last year. Our national economy thus carried its positive growth trend into a 14th consecutive quarter, making a start worthy of the “Century of Türkiye” claim.

In 2023, a year in which, among the leading economies, the USA grew by %2.5, Japan by %1.9 and France by %0.9, the Turkish economy became the 4th fastest-growing country in the G20, after India, China and Indonesia.

Despite the uncertainties brought by the general election in May 2023 and the local election process that took place last month, this performance shown by the Turkish economy is a commendable development.

Alongside slowing global trade, geopolitical risks such as increasing climate disasters or war can cause a pessimistic outlook in the short and medium term. Indeed, as the effect of tighter financial conditions, weak trade growth and low business and consumer confidence is felt more and more, the slowdown trend in the global economy continues.

In response, after 2023 — which was left behind as a highly important and successful period for the Turkish economy in the context of macro-financial rebalancing — the Turkish economy will continue to move step by step closer to its goals of permanently reducing inflation, ensuring stability in the exchange rate, and achieving sustainability in public fiscal balances and foreign trade.

The fall of monthly inflation to its lowest level in 3 months at %3.16 as of March shows that the steps taken towards our priority goal of achieving price stability have begun to bear fruit. The declining current account deficit and foreign currency need brought about by the rebalancing in growth, together with the increasing inflow of external resources, strengthen our macro-financial stability.

Indeed, in March exports stood at USD 22.6 billion, and with imports falling to USD 30.1 billion, the foreign trade deficit narrowed by %10.3. Thus, in the first quarter of 2024, the improvement in the annual foreign trade deficit reached USD 14.3 billion. These developments indicate that the outturn will be well below the current account deficit of USD 34.7 billion foreseen for 2024 in the Medium-Term Program (OVP).

As MÜSİAD, we believe that these developments will be a very great source of motivation for 2024 and beyond, and on this occasion we once again reiterate our belief that our national economy's production-, export- and employment-oriented growth process will continue.

Esteemed Members of the Press,

Today MÜSİAD continues its successful work with great determination, with 13 thousand members at 84 locations across the country. In addition, we serve our members in a total of 81 countries, from the easternmost to the westernmost part of the world, through a global network of up to 170 liaison offices. God willing, we will carry this number higher in the period ahead, and together we will build a strong Türkiye both in the field and at the table.

As I conclude my remarks, I hope that the “Power of Türkiye Awards” will be a means to goodness, and I greet with respect and reverence each and every one of our people who provide added value to our country's economy with their efforts and their labour…

May God protect you.

Mahmut Asmalı

President of MÜSİAD