MÜSİAD - HONORARY CONSULS MEETING
MÜSİAD HEAD OFFICE
5 DECEMBER 2019
Our Esteemed Honorary Consuls,
Our Esteemed MÜSİAD Members,
Esteemed Members of the Press,
We are greatly delighted to host you at our head office; welcome, you have brought joy with you.
Distinguished Guests,
I would like to begin my words with a fine saying of Montesquieu’s;
“Wherever there are gentle-natured and trustworthy people, there is certainly trade”.
The presence of humankind on this old world is traced back as far as 200,000 years ago.
But the melting of the glaciers, the softening of the climate, the domestication of animals and the development of agriculture, with them the beginning of settled life, the emergence of the concept of property, the division of labour in society and the birth of families; these made us social beings.
Finally, the beginning of trade caused humankind to interact rapidly with one another and to reach a rapid level of social development.
Even in the first commercial activities conducted by barter, humankind learned to discover its needs and to produce them, to express its concerns, and to establish communication between the one in need and the one who supplies it.
In other words, trade taught us to share, to exchange, to recognize other people’s needs and assets, and to develop together with them.
The world has changed a great deal. Indeed, today, with the effect of digital transformation, we speak of an entirely new world order.
Yet the rules of trade have not changed in essence.
There is a saying I always keep in mind and take as a principle in my own commercial activities: trade is conducted not with money, but with reputation and communication.
Therefore no single concept on its own is enough to explain economic wholeness. For this reason, to the question of what socio-economic growth is, we say;
it is the working of the production-investment-trade triangle in a way that will increase the level of welfare and social development in society. For only in this way can we rise to a level of development while upholding the cultural codes that constitute our civilization and protecting our generations.
The fundamental condition for this passes through being in interaction and ensuring that societies are able to touch one another.
And societies touching one another’s social and economic conditions, that is, being able to understand one another, is possible only through commercial, political and diplomatic bridges.
In today’s conditions, where politics is adopting an increasingly harsh tone with each passing day and, especially with the repeated elections of the last 12 years, is pressing towards a more nationalist and more closed social order, the language of trade and diplomacy, and its bridge, are precisely the good-natured and trustworthy people Montesquieu spoke of.
To be together here today with you, the precious volunteers of this bridge of interaction, and to host you, is a particular source of pleasure for us.
Our Esteemed Guests,
There was a theory constantly imposed over the past 50 years under the name of “globalization”:
“In order to be a leader in any one of the developed markets, one must gradually rise to leadership in all markets. For today the developed countries have become a single world in terms of both trade and technology”.
When we look today, we see that this statement is rapidly losing its meaning.
For it is a fact that which countries’ cooperation will allow economic opportunities to outpace others is now determined not by developed blocs but by stable diplomacy and trade bridges. For entirely new powers are now at the table.
New blocs, a new generation of trade rules and, of course, a new definition of money. Both the course of the economy and its centrifugal force are flowing perceptibly towards Asia and Africa.
The New Belt and Road theories are directing us towards the importance and the diplomacy of economic knowledge rather than towards the economy itself.
Of course, in order to rise to a leading position in a country, the importance of a gradual presence in its market is still fundamental. But in today’s world it is inter-country economic diplomacy activities that ensure both the soundness and the continuity of international economic activities.
Foreign investment and partnerships are of quite critical importance in the development of national economies.
But following the economic ground surveys of countries in which investment is to be made or partnership opportunities sought by means of desk reports leaves us facing live risks and opportunities with a two-dimensional decision mechanism, and this is a great risk for the soundness of capital movements.
It is precisely at this point that the benefit you provide to us business people and to national economies comes to the surface once again.
As Honorary Consuls, you not only broaden our fields of economic activity but also provide the “economic ground survey” in almost every country by living it and seeing it yourselves and by carrying out the interaction in the field.
In fiscal policy there is a fiscal policy axis and there is also fine-tuning fiscal policy; in today’s world states now keep alive the fine tuning in the arena of diplomacy, precisely as in this example the power of fine-tuning diplomacy, thanks to you.
On the other side of the coin are NGOs: the velvet glove worn by the iron hands of states is now civil society organizations.
In the new world system, NGOs have now attained an identity far beyond merely using the weight given by belonging to a particular cause and by acting collectively: they hold the role of being the balancing factor between the state system and the socio-cultural and economic field.
We see this effect far more strongly, particularly in capital organizations with a high presence in the field.
As a powerful NGO present in 95 countries and operating at a total of 312 locations, and now as a global capital platform, MÜSİAD works to carry this effort ever further.
With our branches and representative offices in 95 countries, we in fact aim to produce a simulation of inter-country commercial, social and economic cooperation in almost every country.
These goals of ours also lie at the foundation of our transition, after 30 years of strong accumulated experience, to a committee system that is compatible with the new world system, capable of taking rapid decisions, in which hierarchy is reduced to a minimum and the requirement of initiative and idea development comes to the fore, and which is focused on producing projects.
This process, which we call RENEWAL, at the same time serves the aim of converting our presence in the outside world into depth in the field and thus, with our international NGO identity, of broadening your field of action as well.
Throughout our 30-year history we have always believed in the power of diplomacy and communication.
Indeed, with the events we have organized recently, we have designed this interaction as an embrace in the field.
At the 17th MÜSİAD EXPO, which we completed in November last year with the presence of our esteemed President, we hosted tens of thousands of business people, investors, statesmen and participants from many different countries. Within the scope of this fair we announced our motto for the new period: creating a culture of doing business together.
To this end we named last year the “year of partnership”.
On the other hand, on 16-18 October we held our International Business Forum (IBF) programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina and met with business world representatives from different regions of the world. Within the scope of this programme, at which we held a productive business forum, we also held our World Presidents Meeting and the opening of our Bosnia and Herzegovina Branch.
Last week, at MÜSİAD VISIONARY’19, which we held with the presence of our esteemed President, we addressed not only the digital future;
From politics to diplomacy; from access to information to its security and processing; from the new rules of trade to the new routes of trade; from new market conditions to the new playmakers of the markets; from an entirely new generation to the new behavioural patterns of those of us obliged to keep up with it; from the new concepts that constitute national power to the new geopolitical domains of national power, we put transformation in every field on the table.
However, we set the main axis here as digital development.
With experts, business people, strategists and academics from very different geographies of the world, and taking as our starting point the phenomenon of “geography being destiny”, we addressed the new diplomatic domains of trade, the economy and culture. We drew attention to the vital importance of building bridges, of meeting and of being introduced, in short, of voluntary stakeholders like yourselves.
We are of the view that the aims and visions of the MÜSİAD FIELD BRANDS, which we shared with the public on the occasion of Visionary 19, will also contribute to your valuable services.
For instance, with our MÜSİAD INVEST formation structure we carried out the first-stage briefing on a system of trade and investment agencies that will combine our presence in the field around the world with our domestic networks.
With the MÜSİAD trade and investment network we have named “MÜSİAD TIA”, we have designed our worldwide presence with an identity that provides you with ease of doing business and resolves your spatial or logistical problems.
It will guide all processes from providing project management support to the selection of the right location and the right partner;
At the same time, we have at last completed a system for an investment-production-trade network that will provide services across a broad scale, in line with doing business index standards, from tax regulations to access to financial support, and from the organizational adaptation of companies to the creation of secure business environments and campuses.
This system being fed both by the committees within MÜSİAD’s internal structure and being embraced by you, our esteemed Honorary Consuls, will direct us towards an economic diplomacy compatible with sustainable development criteria worldwide.
The MÜSİAD DATA brand, which we have likewise made ready for operation in service of the same aim, is based on “economic and commercial intelligence” being stored by the relevant units in the form of a data network and put to work in the countries’ favour.
The advantages that such a database of ours will provide in enabling our country to take pro-active decisions in the political and diplomatic arena, and thereby to gain serious competitive advantages, can surely not be denied.
And it is at this point that I am of the view that the bridges and the cooperation we will build together with you will make a great contribution to structures of this kind working far more productively.
Making our voice heard through our fairs, meetings and events, which are the operational reflections of these efforts in the field, and bringing together business people and the public and academic worlds from very different geographies, will continue to be among our fundamental endeavours.
We are fully confident that MÜSİAD EXPO 2020, which we aim to hold with wider participation on 18-21 November next year at the İstanbul TÜYAP Congress and Fair Centre, will likewise be the occasion for gratifying returns for our business world.
Esteemed guests,
The new commercial relations we describe as “Trade Wars” are governed to a large extent by the whole set of relations we call “trade diplomacy”.
As MÜSİAD we act with this awareness and work with all our strength to fulfil this responsibility for our own part.
We present our projects and proposals to policymakers and to our economic administration, and on the other hand we carry out work actively. We support this work with the events we bring to life. I would like to share with you a few more of these efforts that have taken place recently:
For example, 50 of our business people from our Konya and Bursa branches attended business forums in Malaysia and Singapore in October.
As MÜSİAD we organized the India Business Forum in India between 14 and 18 October.
Our Young MÜSİAD, under whose roof we train young entrepreneurs, attended the Asia-Africa Young Entrepreneurs Forum in China in October and examined investment opportunities in the region on the spot.
In September we held the Uzbekistan Business Forum with a large delegation, together with our business trips at which we assessed investment opportunities.
This intense tempo may perhaps be tiring for others. But we carry out this entire process with great enthusiasm and eagerness.
Now, with a far more institutional and comprehensive Field organization network, MÜSİAD has positioned itself as a capital BASE and DATA CENTRE, and this new positioning has been accepted and appreciated on behalf of our state by our esteemed head of state.
For this reason MÜSİAD is now the meeting and embracing ground of everyone whose cause is Türkiye.
MÜSİAD is the unifying power of capital.
I would like to state that, with our structure renewed and refreshed with your support as well, we will take our place with far firmer steps in the world economy as an element that sets policy in every field, from trade to investment, from socio-cultural interaction to diplomacy.
At this point I also thank the members of our MÜSİAD Board of Directors and our committee chairmen for the effort they have shown.
We work to be a hope for our country even in the most difficult and seemingly most hopeless moments. We will work harder still and advance towards our goals night and day.
Esteemed Guests,
When we look at the last two years, we see that the number of our honorary consuls has risen from 250 to 320.
Thanks to you, firm bridges are being built between us and more than 120 countries.
As I also expressed at the beginning of my speech, honorary consuls are one of the important forms of representation in the development of political and economic relations with the outside world.
The continuation in the field of the effort and endeavour we display in the commercial arena emerges before us as a tremendous driving force.
On the other hand, as you know, differences of opinion and crises arise from time to time between countries.
At this point our honorary consuls, no less than official consuls, take on a great and important role.
For as you know, there are from time to time situations that diplomacy cannot penetrate or where it falls short. Here it is our honorary consuls who step in through the relations they have built. I sincerely congratulate you, who serve as a kind of voluntary ombudsmen of politics and diplomacy.
Distinguished Guests,
MÜSİAD, which has taken on a dynamic structure in the new period, aims to produce more projects and to conduct a rigorous follow-up process so that these projects become reality.
In other words, we are now putting forward pioneering projects that do not remain at the idea stage. Our fundamental aim here is to ensure that every piece of work carried out certainly produces productive results, and to do justice to time, our most precious asset.
For as I also expressed at the beginning of my speech, what made us social beings was our discovery of forms of interaction. And trade accelerated this interaction and socialization. Werner Biyırmın’s saying is interesting: even war is a trade, with bullets instead of cheese.
But we are people who, standing on the side not of war but of diplomacy and communication, have taken up the cause of protecting time and history.
Our Esteemed Guests,
As I conclude my words, I hope that the gatherings that bring us together will continue and increase.
I thank all the members of the committee, foremost among them the Chairman of our MÜSİAD Diplomatic Relations Committee, Zeki Güvercin, who contributed to the realization of this fine programme, and I greet you all with respect and affection.
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD