107th General Administrative Board Meeting - 23 September 2023

Esteemed members of our MÜSİAD, valued representatives of our business world,

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

I greet you all with respect, affection and reverence.

We are on the second day of this intensive three-day programme in which we are holding the 107th General Administrative Board Meetings of our MÜSİAD.

Welcome, you have brought joy with you…

Esteemed MÜSİAD Family,

MÜSİAD’s General Administrative Board Meetings have always been productive and fruitful. One source of this abundance is, of course, the Anatolian geography in which we gather to hold our meetings.

These lands are the centre of labour, of tolerance, of love and of sharing. In the very essence of our MÜSİAD too lies the wisdom of Anatolia and the abundance of the Anatolian lands.

I pray to God Almighty that the leaven of wisdom which the people of the heart brought to Anatolia may always be a means of our unity and our well-being from now on, as it has been until today.

Dear friends,

We are leaving behind the second day of our 107th General Administrative Board Meetings. For two days we held simultaneous meetings with our presidents and with our commissions. We evaluated the presentations of our Karaman Branch and came together with our staff… On behalf of all our colleagues, I extend my sincere thanks to our Karaman Branch, whose great labour and effort made our meetings productive. May God be pleased with them.

Most esteemed MÜSİAD Family,

Since 1990, we have been working hard with the goal of delivering, every year, a performance above that of the previous year through the activities and events we carry out.

Through our General Administrative Board meetings, our branch openings, our International Business Forums, our Visionary meetings, our fairs, the awards we present, the sectoral activities we carry out and the international business summits and organizations we hold, we strive to sustain our understanding of the Medina Marketplace and our cause of civilization.

Our cause is the cause of reviving our country and our nation…

Our cause is the cause of never departing from lawful earnings and from the pleasure of God…

Our cause is the cause of being one, of being united and of being together for our country…

Every MÜSİAD devotee who lends a shoulder to this cause and supports it is at the same time providing great support to the development and progress of our country. MÜSİAD has come to these days with faith, with love for the cause and with patience. God willing, we will shape the future together as well, by working hard, with determination and with resolve.

Esteemed MÜSİAD Family,

While we are on the subject, I would also like to say a few words about our country’s economy and the world economy…

Over the past few years, various economic fluctuations have been experienced in our country as throughout the whole world, particularly because of the pandemic. In 2021, when the adverse effects of the pandemic on supply chains continued, we as a country recorded growth at the level of % 11.4. While the global economy experienced a new wave of shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in 2022 we once again managed as a country to achieve a growth rate at the level of % 5.5.

This positive course, thank God, continued in 2023, the year we are in. Growing by an average of % 3.9 in the first half of the year, our country’s economy thus managed to deliver a performance worthy of the “Century of Türkiye” ideal.

With the completion of the election process, the disappearance of the climate of uncertainty and the subsequent assumption of office by the new economic administration, which has greatly pleased the markets, has been a very important beginning on the path towards the goal of entering the world’s 10 largest economies in the Century of Türkiye.

In the 100th year of the proclamation of our Republic, these steps taken for the construction of the Türkiye of the future are a source of satisfaction for the representatives of the business world.

Throughout our republican history, which has now left a century behind, our country has carried out very great leaps forward in many fields, from the economy to infrastructure and urbanization, from education to health.

Reaching a size of USD 905.5 billion as of 2022, the Turkish economy has succeeded in rising above USD 10,000 in per capita income once again. Our faith is complete that this success will continue in the coming period and that our country, which is entering its second century, will take its place among the world’s 10 largest economies.

In this respect, we attach great importance to the steps taken in recent years, particularly in the industrial sector. Thanks to its solid industrial infrastructure, its qualified human resources and its innovative ecosystem, the Turkish economy will make its place in the global economy even more evident in the periods ahead.

Thanks to its existing manufacturing potential, its flexible production capacity and its proximity to central markets, Türkiye carries the potential to become a major production base when compared with the surrounding countries.

We believe that our export volume, which reached a record level of USD 254.2 billion as of last year, and our total employment figure, which exceeded the level of 31 million and saw its historic peak, will achieve a growth performance above the world average in the 100th year of our Republic as well.

Expectations that the financing quality of the current account deficit may show improvement have also increased, under the effect of the positive assessments recently made by international credit rating agencies regarding the Turkish economy.

Global inflation, which has been going through bad days because of the excessive monetary expansion observed in national economies as a consequence of the post-pandemic period and, in particular, because of the high course of global food and energy prices, unfortunately appears set to retain its place on the agenda in the coming period as well. Within this framework, both the US Federal Reserve (FED) and the European Central Bank (ECB), as well as other leading central banks, find themselves obliged on the one hand to combat inflation and on the other to eliminate the risk of recession.

Naturally, the general level of prices in our country is also under upward pressure. Nevertheless, we believe that we will soon begin to reap the fruits of the steps taken by the economic administration towards monetary tightening and of the other additional measures.

The targets set out within the scope of the Medium-Term Program will also reduce the uncertainties regarding the economy to a minimum in the coming period and will, God willing, increase predictability as well.

Esteemed members of MÜSİAD,

Within the framework of all these data, we must state that our faith is complete that our country’s specific weight in both the regional and the global economy will increase in the coming periods. Having attained a resilient structure thanks to the effective policies of the economic administration despite encountering many crises over the last 20 years, the Turkish economy will maintain its quality of being a “safe haven” in the period ahead as well.

Together with the projects put forward through our economy’s faith in domestic and national production, this confidence is emerging strongly in almost every sector. Thanks to multidimensional and high-impact projects, from the domestic automobile to large-scale leaps in the defence industry, the Turkish economy will achieve a growth performance above the world average in the 100th year of our Republic as well. We, as the MÜSİAD community, have complete faith in this.

May God be pleased with everyone who labours and who sheds the sweat of their brow. God Almighty says the following in the Surah Al Imran: “I will never let the labour of any of you who does something go to waste.”

As business people and merchants, we too are filled with the enthusiasm and the passion of carrying our country higher economically alongside lawful earnings.

Esteemed MÜSİAD Family,

We share a very important ideal.

Together with our Board of Directors, our High Advisory Council and our Young MÜSİAD; with our MÜSİAD Women Presidency, our sector boards and our commissions; with our branches, our staff and our domestic and international organizations; in short, together with all our members, we are working with all our heart for our nation and our country in order to realize the great and powerful “Century of Türkiye” ideal.

The “Century of Türkiye” vision put forward by our government will be one of our most important motivations on the path to bringing out our country’s potential. In the hundredth year of our Republic, a national economy growing with domestic and national technologies will surge forward with the strength and the support of Anatolian wisdom.

With great responsibility and sensitivity, we will continue to work with our usual enthusiasm and determination on the path to realizing our ideal of a strong Türkiye. MÜSİAD has come to these days with faith, with love for the cause and with patience. God willing, we will shape the future together as well.

As I conclude my speech, I greet with respect and reverence all our members who contribute to our MÜSİAD with their efforts, their labour and the sweat of their brow, and who provide added value to our country’s economy…

May God protect you.

Mahmut Asmalı

President of MÜSİAD