MÜSİAD SARAJEVO BRANCH OPENING
18 OCTOBER 2019
PROTOCOL (?)
Distinguished Presidents and Representatives of the Business World and of Non-Governmental Organizations,
Esteemed MÜSİAD Members and Friends,
Esteemed Members of the Press,
Today, as the MÜSİAD family, we are together with you in order to share our excitement.
At this gathering, which we hold on the occasion of the opening of MÜSİAD Sarajevo, I respectfully greet you all; welcome, you have honoured us with your presence.
Distinguished Guests,
The Balkan geography is a very special and precious land for us.
Our shared history, our long-standing friendship and the culture of living together while upholding our rights make this geography special for us.
No matter how far apart they may be physically, countries bound to one another by the heart see an entirely different bond of brotherhood flourish between them.
Türkiye and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as two long-standing friendly countries, have preserved this bond for many years.
The successful relations in the political arena and the strong bond between our peoples also make themselves felt on commercial and economic ground.
When we look at the mutual trade between Türkiye and Bosnia and Herzegovina, we see a gratifying picture.
Our trade volume reached its peak in 2018 at USD 661.7 million.
Of this, USD 420.4 million was Türkiye’s exports to Bosnia, while the portion of USD 241.2 million was Türkiye’s imports from Bosnia.
Approximately 100 Turkish companies operate in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The total amount of Turkish investments here is around USD 145 million.
These figures are gratifying; but of course they are not enough for us, we must carry them higher.
We must increase our export and import items and develop our investments.
As the gateway opening onto the European Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina holds great opportunities for Turkish business people.
I believe that our business people, by making the best possible use of this opportunity, will make an even greater contribution to the development of trade between our countries.
Distinguished Guests,
As MÜSİAD, we work with all our strength so that our country attains a structure that grows by producing.
We spend our energy in order to build Türkiye’s future in the best possible way. This is our entire effort, our concern and our aim.
We work in order to produce together and grow together with our members at home and abroad and with all our friends.
As MÜSİAD business people, we have never focused solely on increasing our personal wealth since the day we were founded.
Our aim has never been first and foremost to earn money. We have regarded the development of society and of our country, not of the individual, as our priority.
With this sense of responsibility, we come together with business people in all four corners of the world and work in line with our country’s common goals.
Our strong organizational network and the powerful bond among our members offer us a great privilege. We strive to strengthen this bond even further with each passing day.
Praise be to God, this effort today enables us to reach our members and friends at a total of 311 points.
While strengthening our commercial activities, we also 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 are carrying on our process of change, which we call Renewal, while remaining faithful to the values to which we have been committed 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 implementation.
Renewal was launched in order to make MÜSİAD’s field of influence and power more effective and more efficient.
With renewal, we will walk more resolutely towards the goals we have set before us.
In the new period as well, we will continue to process and to 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 of our country.
Together we will all reach the goal of a Türkiye that grows by producing.
Distinguished Guests,
Before I conclude my remarks, I would like to touch upon Operation Peace Spring, which our country is conducting against terrorist organizations in Syria.
Türkiye is successfully continuing the operation it launched in order to eliminate the threat posed by terrorist organizations to our border security.
As MÜSİAD, I would like to state once again that we support the operation our country is carrying out on just grounds and that we stand by our state.
We hope that the countries seeking to leave our country alone in this just struggle will see the truth as soon as possible.
Türkiye, as it has done to this day, will hereafter continue to be a source of hope for the peoples of the region, without deviating from its goal of being a base of peace in its region.
On this occasion, I wish success to our heroic Mehmetçik in Operation Peace Spring, and I hope that the operation will bring peace and tranquillity to our geography as soon as possible, first and foremost for the peoples of the region.
I pray for God’s mercy upon our brothers who have fallen as martyrs and wish a swift recovery to our wounded.
Esteemed Guests,
I hope that our branch, which we are opening today, will be auspicious for the business world of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of Türkiye. May God make our work auspicious and bless our earnings.
I thank everyone who contributed to the organization and greet you with respect and affection.
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD