TÜRKİYE - UZBEKISTAN BUSINESS FORUM

24 September 2019

UZBEKISTAN - TASHKENT

Honourable Ambassador (Mehmet Süreyya Er),

Honourable President of the Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (İkramov Admah İlhamoviç),

Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Tourism Development (Kasım Hocaev Ulubek)

Members of the MÜSİAD Board of Directors, my Branch Presidents,

Esteemed Representatives of the Turkish and Uzbek Business World,

Friends of MÜSİAD

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With the joy of coming together at this fine event, I greet you all with respect; welcome, you have graced us with your presence.

Esteemed Guests,

Uzbekistan and Türkiye, as a single heart and two brotherly countries, have succeeded in advancing the strong relations they maintain over the course of time.

The meeting held in 2016 between our President Mr. Erdoğan and the President of Uzbekistan Mr. Mirziyoyev further strengthened the bond between our countries, and as of last year the relations between the two countries were raised to the level of a strategic partnership.

While the Uzbek poet Ali Şir Nevai says, “There is much beauty in Turkish; for there is subtlety and originality in its formation”, Mevlâna says, “the heart is the sea, the tongue is the shore; whatever is in the sea washes up on the shore”. As business people raised in geographies where both the heart and the tongue are full of subtleties, we are establishing this success achieved in the political arena in our commercial relations as well.

As is the case here today, while on the one hand we reinforce our unity of heart, on the other hand we are developing ways to strengthen our economic relations.

At this point, MÜSİAD assumes an important and critical role.

As MÜSİAD, we are a capital platform serving at a total of 311 contact points, 224 of them abroad. From İstanbul, where we set out 30 years ago, we have reached these days in which we carry the voice of Anatolia to the world.

We owe our success in organization and the strong bonds we have established at every global and local point we have reached, first and foremost, to the goodwill of our members and our friends.

We set out believing in our country and in our country's potential; but we have worked and continue to work through our branches and representative offices so that every business person we come into contact with and every country we visit may also develop their own potential.

While strengthening the bond among our business people, we also continue our cooperation initiatives and our commercial diplomacy moves.

Our representative office in Tashkent serves as a solid bridge between the Uzbek business world and our Turkish business people.

The MoU Agreement signed in May 2018 between MÜSİAD and the Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the presence of our esteemed President and the esteemed President of Uzbekistan is one of the most recent examples of this.

The year 2019 has been a period in which we as MÜSİAD have worked intensively to develop our relations with Uzbekistan.

In February we held our Uzbekistan Investment and Tourism Opportunities Panel at our Head Office.

Following our embassy visit in Ankara, in July we attended and supported the Uzbekistan Business Forum held within DEİK. In the same month, we again hosted a business delegation from Uzbekistan at our Head Office.

I hope that today's business forum will also be productive and will lead to long-term, fruitful business.

In addition to advancing our commercial and economic relations, it is of course also necessary to mention our strong bond stemming from our history at the social and cultural level.

I am of the opinion that we should also give weight to cultural activities, both in order to pass this valuable bond on to our future generations and so that our peoples may grow closer.

Esteemed Guests,

With its population of approximately 30 million, its strategic location and its rich cultural values, Uzbekistan is an important country in its region.

Both states are demonstrating strong will in order to bring out in the best possible way the economic potential it holds and to advance our mutual commercial relations further.

The trade volume between our countries has recorded a steady increase over the years.

Our bilateral trade volume with Uzbekistan stood at USD 1.74 billion in 2018. Our exports to Uzbekistan, which were at the level of USD 82 million

in 2000, have reached USD 952 million. In the same period, our imports rose from USD 86 million to USD 796 million.

At present, approximately 500 of our companies with Turkish capital are operating here, primarily in textiles, contracting, food and services. In Türkiye, meanwhile, the number of companies with Uzbek capital has today exceeded 200.

It is possible to increase this number and to carry our trade volume much higher.

The esteemed Turkish historian of science Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin says, “If you have faith and that faith pushes you to be constructive, you will achieve a great many things”.

Our faith at this point is complete! We will succeed by working harder.

MÜSİAD is one of Türkiye's largest capital organizations.

It has members in every field you can think of, from the defence industry to agricultural products. It comprises 11,000 members and more than 60,000 companies.

As the business people of our countries, by coming together more often and intensifying the exchange of ideas and experience, and by acting more boldly in mutual investments and ventures, we can grow our countries and our trade, and we can achieve this.

Esteemed Guests,

Today we are witnessing the great transformation taking place in the world; we are witnessing the changing commercial and economic balances and the trade wars between countries.

One of the most important actors in this shift of balance is the Belt and Road Project that China is implementing; the route and the content of the project affect us to a significant extent.

In the project, which aims to connect China to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America through a system of land and sea route networks, Türkiye and Uzbekistan occupy extremely strategic positions owing to their geographical locations.

It is a fact that the project, which will encompass USD 1 trillion of investment and a population of more than 3 billion, will strengthen the global economy.

As the two important pillars of this great project, which is projected to shape the coming 50 years, we too must develop the right strategies in order to realize our future goals.

Economic self-sufficiency is the key factor in today's new world order. Carrying out future planning of strategic resources and the capacity to respond instantly to change, that is, “economic reflex”, is an indicator of our capability to compete in the economic war.

Security in the economy and economic intelligence are the new areas of manoeuvre and management brought to us by the new economic architecture. These are new political elements. The work to be carried out in these areas will make us both strong and key countries of all trade lines and belts.

The new era does not accept countries being passive in structure; therefore we too, beyond merely engaging with existing projects, must be more effective by using the strength and the cards in our hands in the most correct manner.

Esteemed Guests,

Hoping that it will be followed by others, I wish that this fine event, with the blessing of the bilateral business meetings, may bring goodness for the Turkish and Uzbek business worlds; I thank everyone who contributed, and I greet you all with respect and affection. May God protect you.

Abdurrahman Kaan

President of MÜSİAD