MÜSİAD SMART AGRICULTURAL CITIES PROJECT LAUNCH

HYBRID (MÜSİAD HEAD OFFICE - ONLINE)

14 OCTOBER 2020

Honourable Minister,

Esteemed MÜSİAD Members and Friends,

Esteemed Members of the Press,

I respectfully greet you all at the launch of our Smart Agricultural Cities Model, which holds a particular value for us and which we regard as highly important for the development of our country; welcome. Honourable Minister, Distinguished Participants,

As you know, the realization of economic and social development at the national level is possible only through the elimination of the economic and social imbalances between regions. And this is a result that can be obtained through local and regional development.

Making this observation is important; but at this point we must now take action and work without losing time. It has become imperative for both our industrialists and business people and our working population, as the productive forces of the country, to turn their faces to the countryside.

It is now essential that we raise all our cities, by using the advantages they hold in their hands, to a strong position with high competitive power in the national and international arena.

If we succeed in this, we believe that we will launch a great rural drive on behalf of our country and on behalf of our nation.

We develop all our projects with this thinking.

MÜSİAD Smart Agricultural Cities, which we have put forward after a long feasibility study, is one of these projects.

We are of the opinion that our project, coordinated by the MÜSİAD Rural Development Committee, will assume an important task in the rural, regional and across-the-board development of our country.

As you know, the Covid-19 pandemic also brought with it a process of economic difficulties that made its effect felt all over the world.

We can say that the environment of opportunity we believe will emerge in the post-crisis period carries the potential to provide great advantages for many sectors. Among these sectors, the food sector comes to the fore more prominently.

Indeed, recent developments show that in 2020, a year in which agricultural production was expected to be productive on a global scale, serious difficulties concerning the food sector may be experienced in some countries because of the measures taken against the virus outbreak.

We can state that our country will be in a seriously advantageous position with regard to the global supply problem that may be experienced in food products.

We believe that, in the event of a possible global increase in demand in the food sector, we must make very good use of Türkiye's positive image in the perception of consumption around the world.

I would also like to underline that this environment of opportunity that will emerge in the field of food, agriculture and livestock will not be short-lived. Because, by simple arithmetic, when you overtake the countries that already lag behind you in terms of production and fill the gap that will form in the field of food in the world, your hand will be strengthened, and this will open the way to a sustainable power.

With your permission, I will share some numerical data regarding the performance we have shown as Türkiye in agriculture.

Total agricultural exports, which stood at the level of USD 22.7 billion in 2018, rose to the level of USD 23.4 billion in 2019. In the January-September period of 2020, agricultural exports stood at the level of USD 17.1 billion, whereas in the same period of the previous year they had been at the level of USD 16.3 billion. Thus, despite the decline in total exports due to the effect of Covid-19, it is seen that exports in the agricultural sector recorded an increase.

Accordingly, imports in the food and agriculture sector amounted to USD 11.51 billion in 2019, with a decrease of 4.06 percent compared with the previous year. The foreign trade balance, for its part, was seen to have risen to USD 4.7 billion, with an increase of 16.16 percent compared with the same period of the previous year.

In the first 8 months of 2020, the sector's foreign trade balance rose to USD 2.13 billion with a significant increase of %33.1 compared with the same period of the previous year; in the first 7 months of 2020 the sector's foreign trade balance rose to the level of USD 2.11 billion with an increase of %11.6. While the export unit value in the first 8 months of 2020 came to USD 1,027/tonne with an increase of %5.8 compared with the same period of the previous year, the import unit value came to USD 488/tonne with an increase of %1.

When we look at total agricultural exports, the weight of plant product exports at the level of USD 15.4 billion draws attention. While wood and forest product exports followed the plant product group with USD 5.5 billion, animal product exports stood at the level of USD 2.5 billion.

%30 of Türkiye's exports are carried out by agriculture-based industrialists. In fact, the sectors that earn net foreign currency for Türkiye, that is, that do not run a trade deficit, are found only in the category of agriculture and agriculture-based industry.

According to the new report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), global trade in food and agricultural products has more than doubled over the last twenty years. The report estimates that about one-third of global agricultural and food exports is traded within global value chains and crosses borders at least twice. The rise of global value chains stems from income growth, low trade barriers and technological advances that transform markets and trade processes and connect farmers to traders and consumers in regions and countries.

According to the FAO Report; global agricultural trade, which was USD 680 billion in 1995, reached USD 1.5 trillion in 2018 in a calculation based on the 2015 price level. The rising exports of developing countries, which make up more than one-third of the world total, were also effective in this increase.

While the picture before us is such, that is, while there is an advantageous course for Türkiye, we aim to accelerate and strengthen still further, with new projects and initiatives, the upward movement Türkiye has captured in agriculture.

The MÜSİAD Smart Agricultural Cities project that we will bring to life in line with this goal contains a broad-scale transformation in order to encourage — primarily in the fields of Agriculture,

livestock and industrial agriculture — work consistent with the goal of rural development

and rural life.

The Smart Agricultural Cities, which take rural development and rural transformation as their basis, aim to restructure rural life at city standards.

In the model, which is founded on a life of high welfare, alongside the detached houses and flats in which the main producers in the smart agriculture cities and the people working in production can live together with their families, a huge living space in which all needs can be met will be built.

The living space to be built will include Educational Institutions, Health Facilities, an Agricultural Vocational School of Higher Education, Cafés and Restaurants, a Cinema and Theatre, a City Square, Parks, a Shopping Mall, Sports Areas, a Handicrafts Centre, a Boutique Hotel and a Mosque.

The SMART AGRICULTURAL CITIES, which will be located on a total area of 40,000 decares, will, with the Vocational Courses, Continuing Education Centre and Digital and Innovation Centre they will house, be the sources that feed the deep-rooted and sustainable change that is targeted.

In the Smart Agricultural Cities, which are planned to reach an average annual trade volume of TRY 400 million, agricultural and rural production will take place on the basis of “production diversity”, in line with the needs and demands specific to each region.

The project aims to enable our people to live with access to all the possibilities of city life.

Therefore these possibilities will encourage many of our people towards rural life and will make sustainable rural development possible.

The Smart Agricultural Cities, which are self-sufficient; which produce and develop while at the same time making no compromise on social life, and which aim to create a natural and smart living culture, cover five main headings:

Digital and Smart Agricultural Production Ecosystem, Collective Wisdom Production Ecosystem, High Welfare and Living Ecosystem, Producing and Transforming Social Ecosystem, Middle Wisdom Management Ecosystem.

The Smart Agricultural Cities, which contain a Cold Storage Depot, a Truck Park, Packaging - Distribution, a Laboratory, Greenhouse Growing, an Organic and Natural Product Market and a Botanical Garden, and which create modern and functional living spaces, will be built upon an employment model that gives priority to young people and women.

In the project, which will make room for young entrepreneurs under the age of 40 whose projects are accepted; city life in the countryside will be offered to 500 families, 1,000 employees, 3,000 people in total.

In addition to the incentives and supports provided by the state for young farmers, we as MÜSİAD will always stand by our young entrepreneurs. The Smart Agricultural Cities, where qualified and educated people will be employed, will produce knowledge, technology and innovation.

In order to reach our worldwide goals as Türkiye, we will fully demonstrate the strength our country possesses in food, agriculture and livestock, which are among the strategic sectors.

Honourable Minister, Distinguished Participants,

We will continue to develop and to develop our country. As we express at every opportunity as MÜSİAD, we will produce together, we will sell together, we will all win together. I hope that our Smart Agricultural Cities Project will, God willing, give us very great momentum towards this goal of ours. I thank our Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Mr. Bekir Pakdemirli above all, as well as our rural development committee and everyone who has given labour to the creation of this model, and I greet you with respect and affection.

Abdurrahman Kaan

President of MÜSİAD