MÜSİAD QARD AL-HASAN FUND 5TH ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SPEECH TEXT

Our Esteemed Presidents, Our Esteemed MÜSİAD Family, Esteemed Members of the Press,

I greet you all with my most sincere feelings, with respect and affection. Your presence here today is an indication of gathering not merely around a general assembly but at the same time around a whole set of values. I thank each and every one of you for the interest you have shown in this precious movement of goodness and brotherhood of our MÜSİAD.

As MÜSİAD, throughout our adventure of more than 35 years, while contributing to our country in many fields from production to investment and from employment to exports, we have also always kept to the fore an understanding based on the principles of moral economy and on human dignity. Our Qard al-Hasan Fund is one of the most important institutionalized examples of this approach.

Our Qard al-Hasan Fund, which denotes an interest-free loan given to those in need without seeking any benefit and solely for the sake of God's approval, is a humane and Islamic model of solidarity, of trust and of growing together. At the point we have reached, our fund has become, beyond being a financing instrument, a mechanism of conscience in economic life. In the Disaster of the Century that we experienced as a country in 2023, the importance and the impact of our Qard al-Hasan Fund was once again seen by us all together.

Our Qard al-Hasan Fund, which has strengthened its institutional infrastructure and embodies all the values of MÜSİAD, has today achieved an important success with more than 2,500 members and a total amount of support extended reaching TRY 113 million.

I thank everyone who has laboured for this success, on my own behalf and on behalf of our MÜSİAD Community. I would like to thank in particular our Former Fund President Mr. Muhammet Ali Özeken, whose term of office is completed as of today, for the responsibility and the devotion he displayed during his term. In addition to his duty as president, Mr. Özeken has represented an understanding of trust, of institutionalization and of stability in our Qard al-Hasan Fund. On behalf of the MÜSİAD family, I once again offer him my gratitude.

I also wish every success in advance to our President Mr. Mustafa Aktaş, who will take over the office of the Presidency of the Qard al-Hasan Fund today. With his past experience of MÜSİAD and of Qard al-Hasan and with his strong communication, I sincerely believe that he will carry this structure even further forward.

Distinguished Guests,

The Qard al-Hasan model is positioned as an important complementary actor in the economic and social transformation process our country is going through. And in the new period, we as MÜSİAD will strive to ensure that our Qard al-Hasan Fund has broader participation and takes more effective communication as its basis, so that it may answer not only today's needs but also those of the future.

The MÜSİAD Qard al-Hasan Fund is a fund of goodness and of solidarity and a trust of a civilization. God willing, we too are determined to multiply this goodness, to enlarge the trust of our ancient civilization and to carry this togetherness to many more years.

As I conclude my words, I thank all our branches, our members, our volunteer supporters and the long-standing presidents of both our MÜSİAD and our Fund who have contributed to the development of this structure; and I pray to my Lord that our Ordinary General Assembly may be a means of goodness.

I greet you all once again with respect and affection.

May God protect you.

Burhan ÖZDEMİR President of MÜSİAD