The 3rd Anatolian Economic Diplomacy Program was held with the participation of Hungarian Ambassador Victor Matis, hosted by the MÜSİAD Samsun Branch.
The program began with the opening speech of MÜSİAD Samsun Branch President Hasan Tahsin Şengül. In his speech, Şengül expressed the delight he felt at holding this program in Samsun, the city with the highest potential in the Black Sea region; he told the Embassy guests about the history and commercial development of Samsun. He stated that, by virtue of its geographical location, Samsun is in a strategic position in the Black Sea region with its air, sea, road and rail transport. Şengül pointed out that Samsun, lying on the Europe-Asia transit route and being our country's junction point opening to the Black Sea countries, is in terms of commercial potential the outward-opening gate of the region's provinces and of the neighbouring geographies and possesses a broad hinterland. He stated that thanks to Samsun's 3 ports, its free zone, its 8 Organized Industrial Zones, its 2 universities, our country's two great plains (the Çarşamba and Bafra Plains), its developed infrastructure in the service sector and its transport facilities, it is one of our country's important provinces, growing and developing with its qualities of possessing potential in industry, trade, agriculture, tourism, health and education. He stated that the province's 2021 export figure was USD 1.3 million and that with this figure it ranked 18th.
Stating that the contribution of our MÜSİAD members to the export figures the export figures rising with each passing day is great, he gave the information that 10 companies from Samsun among the top 1,000 companies on the 2020 TİM list are MÜSİAD members, and likewise that 3 of the 6 companies from Samsun in the top 500 of the 2020 İSO list and 1 of the 7 companies in the second 500 are our MÜSİAD members. He stated that in 2021 exports were made from Samsun to 164 countries and 4 free zones, and that the 5 countries to which the most exports were made were China, Peru, the USA, the Netherlands and the Russian Federation. Noting that the Samsun Chamber of Commerce and Industry was founded in 1901, that according to the records of the Samsun Chamber of Commerce and Industry there are 200 companies with foreign capital in the province and that these are predominantly investments from countries such as Germany, the United States of America, Albania, Austria and Azerbaijan, Şengül said that the addition of Hungary to this list would make them happy.
In the program, which continued with the speech of MÜSİAD Diplomatic Relations Commission Chairman Osman Nuri Önügören, Önügören stated that the Anatolian Economic Diplomacy Program, the 3rd of which we have held, is a manifestation of our enthusiasm for our country and of our love for our provinces. He stated that the program aims to describe and promote the potential of our different Anatolian cities in order to develop trade, increase employment and boost exports. He expressed his desire to focus more on our provinces whose export figures have declined over the years and to raise these figures higher all together, hand in hand.
Hungarian Ambassador Mr. Victor MATIS began his speech by stating how important it is for him to be in the place where the Historic Struggle began on 19 May. He stated how beneficial it is that MÜSİAD takes ambassadors to different provinces of Anatolia and that representatives of foreign countries are introduced in the field to associations and to business people. He delivered a speech on the political and economic relations between Hungary and Türkiye. In his speech he gave the good news that 2024 would be the Türkiye-Hungary Joint Culture Year. He gave the information that Hungary would bring 100 major cultural events within one year and that the budget allocated for this was approximately EUR 3 million. Stating that Hungary and Türkiye are natural allies in every sense, Ambassador Matis expressed that Hungary politically supports Türkiye on every issue, including the European Union and NATO. He said that Türkiye currently holds a very important position in politics and in international security, especially over the last 15 years. He stated how important Türkiye is for Europe and therefore for Hungary.
The program continued with a presentation on investment opportunities in Hungary by Hungarian Commercial Counsellor Miklos Bujaky and Hungarian Export Promotion Agency (HEPA) Business Development Director Burak Özdemir.
The protocol speeches concluded with the speech of MÜSİAD Vice President Davut Altunbaş. Beginning his speech by talking about his visits to Hungary, a country that has hundreds of common words within its language and in which hospitality towards Turks is at its highest point, Altunbaş stated that, in commercial terms, our members who wish to trade with Europe could use Hungary as a training ground and that it could be regarded as the country that will carry them to Europe. He stated that Hungary, which has a Gross National Product of approximately USD 155 billion and a population of 9.8 million, attracts more than 10 million tourists to Budapest alone. He talked about how advantageous the country is: that Hungary, situated right in the centre of Europe, could be an ecosystem of opportunity in the business world for gaining access to Europe, that it could be seen as a warehouse for shipping products to Europe, that with small investments we could change the origin and obtain the documents that would bring our products up to European Union standards, that we could carry goods duty-free to many points of the world, and that it has the lowest corporate tax in Europe at %9. He stated that with the Anatolian Economic Diplomacy the aim is to carry the mental memory obtained during courtesy visits to ambassadors into visual memory by bringing the ambassador and his delegation to Anatolia and having them visit the factories of member companies.
The program continued with the delegation's visit to Samsun Governor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zülkif Dağlı. Subsequently, the factory visits to MC Filtre, SAMPA Automotive Industry, Doğuş School Furniture, Borsan Group and Bahadır Medical Instruments, MÜSİAD member companies and leaders in their fields, came to an end.
