MÜSİAD Industry and Technology Summit “MUST 2023”

18 October 2023

Distinguished participants,

Esteemed members of the press,

Dear MÜSİAD Family,

Welcome, all of you, to the MÜSİAD Industry and Technology Summit “MUST 2023”.

At our summit, which we are holding for the first time this year, we host guests each more valuable than the other. We are together with highly distinguished speakers who will explain to us how industry and technology walk hand in hand and how they will move forward in partnership in the near future.

On behalf of MÜSİAD, I extend my sincere thanks to all our speakers and participants who will guide us with their foresight and vision…

Distinguished guests,

As I begin my speech, I believe it is necessary to touch upon a very important matter.

As you know, a great human tragedy has been unfolding in Gaza for the past ten days. With each passing day, we continue to receive bad news from the region. Because of the intense air strikes and bombardments carried out by Israel, a great massacre is taking place in Gaza.

The State of Israel is conducting an attack aimed entirely at terrorising, without regard for any target… Civilian settlements, places of worship, hospitals and educational institutions in Gaza have been razed to the ground. The infrastructure system has been destroyed… People’s electricity and water have been cut off… People have been left without food and without water…

Israel is carrying out what is almost a planned campaign of genocide in Gaza.

As MÜSİAD, we condemn the war in Gaza and this massacre committed against humanity. We call upon all actors in the region for justice, so that the war may be ended, peace may be secured in the region and the crimes against humanity may be prevented as soon as possible. We say that the war in Gaza must end immediately…

We are obliged to oppose this massacre with the loudest voice. We must stand beside the oppressed, united and together. Only as long as we are one and together, only as long as we are strong, can we stand upright against injustice beside the oppressed… Only in this way can we make our struggle stronger.

Because, as all of us know very well, being strong depends on having a say in economic terms… If being strong means speaking out on the entire world stage in politics and diplomacy, then the solution lies in possessing economic power and economic independence.

The way to achieve this is to strengthen domestic production and to keep it dominant at all times. As we at MÜSİAD have always emphasised, we must strengthen domestic production and support it. The power of Anatolian capital, which is composed entirely of lawful earnings, will become far more effective when domestic production is brought to the forefront.

Only if there is domestic production will we be strong in the economy… And if we are strong in the economy, we can support the oppressed, those in difficulty and those in need around the world. This is precisely why at MUST 2023 we say “Industry Working for Production”… This is why we at MÜSİAD emphasise domestic production at every opportunity.

Because in this way our country will become far stronger and will have a greater say as a global political actor both in its region and in the world. Because what constitutes real power is, above all, the capacity to hold economic power. This is precisely why at MUST 2023 we say “Industry Working for People”… This is precisely why we at MÜSİAD “work to increase the prosperity of humanity.”

Distinguished guests,

A few days ago, our Honourable Minister of Trade, Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat, made an important call. We welcome this call with great satisfaction.

Thanks to our Ministry of Trade’s support for increasing exports of goods and services and to the import policies it implements to protect domestic producers, its efforts to achieve a lasting improvement in the current account are continuing with determination. Thanks to this policy, on the one hand the growth environment in our economy is being strengthened, and on the other hand a structural transformation that reinforces macroeconomic stability is being achieved.

We have full confidence that we will reap the fruits of the steps taken to combat inflation in the medium and long term. At the same time, in order for the impact of the decisions taken and the policies implemented by the economic administration to increase and for the process of normalisation in prices to accelerate, the business world must also put its shoulder to the wheel. In this context, we welcome with satisfaction the call for price reductions made to the representatives of the real sector by our Honourable Minister of Trade, Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat, and as MÜSİAD we give this call our full support.

The statements of support that came from many representatives of the retail sector immediately after our Honourable Minister’s call have been most gratifying in terms of keeping the perception of price normalisation positive.

As MÜSİAD, with our total of more than 60 thousand member companies and without distinction of sector, we would like to repeat here as well the call for “price reductions” that we have made to all our members.

We support our Ministry of Trade’s policies that will carry our economy into the Century of Türkiye with its priorities of “value-added and innovation-oriented production and investment, employment, exports, current account surplus and fair distribution”.

This is precisely why at MUST 2023 we say “Industry Working for Investment”, “Industry Working for Employment”…

Distinguished guests, dear MÜSİAD Family,

The MÜSİAD Industry and Technology Summit, which we are holding for the first time this year, is bringing us together with very important guests from the business world. Within the scope of the summit to be held, under the headings “MUST Deliberation”, “MUST Window” and “MUST Speakers”, we will address in particular the developments in industry and technology, the points of contact between these sectors, and new trends together with new opportunities.

Furthermore, in the evaluation part of our speech, God willing, we will also announce to the public the “MÜSİAD Industry and Technology Manifesto”, the vision document expressing MÜSİAD’s views, thoughts and objectives.

We aim for this vision document, which expresses MÜSİAD’s views, thoughts and objectives regarding the current state and the future of our country’s industry, to bring a new perspective on technology, production, employment, exports and industry.

Distinguished guests and participants,

We are excited about MUST 2023. As MÜSİAD, we are filled with the joy and excitement of achieving yet another first. We are together at the MÜSİAD Industry and Technology Summit in order to broaden our perspective, to increase our production power and to penetrate new technologies more rapidly. I hope that both the manifesto we will announce and the ideas and thoughts of our participants will lead to new beginnings.

As I conclude my remarks, I hope that the MÜSİAD Industry and Technology Summit will bring blessings to our country and to our nation.

I thank you very much for your participation and greet you all with respect and esteem.

May God protect you.

Mahmut Asmalı

President of MÜSİAD