USA Program
21 September 2024
Esteemed MÜSİAD Family,
Distinguished representatives of the Turkish and American business world,
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen,
I respectfully greet you all…
Welcome to our program; you have honoured us with your presence…
Most esteemed guests,
As a civil society organization, our MÜSİAD has carried out very great works in 34 years and has achieved great things. God willing, it will continue to do even more in the coming periods. We believe in this strength of MÜSİAD and of the MÜSİAD community.
MÜSİAD, which serves with an organizational structure that represents 60 thousand enterprises with more than 14 thousand members at home and abroad and that provides employment to approximately 2 million people, continues its work in a total of 81 countries with 85 contact points at home and up to 100 contact points abroad.
MÜSİAD is a “civil society organization” that has worked ceaselessly on the principle of “High Morality, High Technology” since its very first day and that carries out intensive “trade diplomacy” activities in the national and international arena.
And MÜSİAD has always been a guiding institution mentioned in the business world with virtue, morality and justice. MÜSİAD is committed to the principle of the Medina Market and has brought this principle to the fore in all its activities and works over the years.
Moreover, together with this understanding, through the activities we carry out in the four corners of the world, as we do today, we strive to conduct extremely effective trade diplomacy work with high added value.
Esteemed Members of MÜSİAD, esteemed business people,
The United States of America has been a country with which we have maintained important partnerships in economic and commercial and diplomatic terms. Even though the ground of these partnerships has followed a fluctuating course throughout the historical process, it has generally been positive in commercial terms.
As you know, there is a joint target to raise the bilateral trade volume between our country and the USA to USD 100 billion. The bilateral trade volume, which rose to the highest level in history in 2022 with an increase of %15.2 compared with the previous year, stood at USD 32.1 billion despite this increase. In 2023, with the %12.2 decline in Türkiye's exports to the USA, the bilateral trade volume fell to USD 30.6 billion.
In the field of the economy, the governments of both countries display a determined stance on revitalizing relations and carrying them further forward.
Nevertheless, in order to reach the said target of USD 100 billion in a balanced manner, Turkish companies need to lower their production scales and unit costs against their competitors in the American market.
In order to reach the target of a USD 100 billion bilateral trade volume with the USA, logistics centres will be of great importance. For sectoral clustering is an important factor that forms the basis of possessing superior competitive power and of economic development. We are of the opinion that it would be particularly beneficial for Türkiye to establish large distribution centres and logistics bases in the USA in order to increase its trade volume with the USA.
When both the past and the future of Türkiye-USA relations are taken into consideration and account, expectations of continuity on the one hand and of change on the other should come to the fore.
In particular, Türkiye and America need to keep alive their effort to work together on regional and global problems as well, and not only on bilateral matters. In this respect, it is essential that common interests be made the focal point, especially in global macro issues such as hot war, the food crisis, energy and climate change.
At precisely this point, it is very important that the intensity of the diplomatic contact traffic between Türkiye and the USA be increased, especially on the issue of Gaza, and that efforts be intensified in the search for a ceasefire and a solution.
We believe that these contacts will make great contributions both in humanitarian and in trade diplomacy terms.
As the MÜSİAD Family, we work hard and strive hard. God willing, we will all reap the fruits of this effort and endeavour together.
Distinguished Guests,
As MÜSİAD, for 34 years we have been of the opinion that it is very important to develop together and to walk the same path with business people with whom we share common values. Cooperation is very important for us. I believe that establishing new and constructive business relations and signing off on strong joint efforts, while at the same time developing commercial relations with business circles, will open many auspicious doors in the coming periods.
As long as we are of sincere intention, auspicious doors will always open before us, God willing… We are here to do fruitful business together and to open the doors to new collaborations.
I wish that the meeting we are holding here today may be auspicious and fruitful for us all.
As I conclude my words, I greet you all with my most sincere feelings…
May God protect you.
Mahmut Asmalı
President of MÜSİAD