The Türkiye Consultation Meeting, organized by MÜSİAD with the theme "Take Notice of Cities, Build Cities in the Century of Türkiye", was held with the participation of Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Murat Kurum and hosted by the MÜSİAD İzmir branch. Speaking at the programme, MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı said, "Let us build smart cities, but let us not neglect the heart of cities. Let us have human-centred, virtuous cities as we had in history. When we put people first, we will have green cities that are friendly to the environment, to nature and to animals as well." Within the scope of the event, the strategy plan for urban transformation efforts was also announced for the first time.

The Türkiye Consultation Meeting - TÜİT, organized under the coordination of the Construction and Building Materials Sector Board of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD), was held with the theme "Take Notice of Cities, Build Cities in the Century of Türkiye" and hosted by the MÜSİAD İzmir branch. The programme, which began with the opening speeches of Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Murat Kurum, Governor of İzmir Yavuz Selim Köşger, MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı, AK Party Deputy Chairman Att. Hamza Dağ, İzmir Member of Parliament Necip Nasır, MÜSİAD İzmir Branch President Bilal Saygılı and MÜSİAD Construction and Building Materials Sector Board Chairman Cemil Yüksekdağ, continued with the panel titled The Construction of Cities from Tradition to the Future.

At the panel, where developments in the field of the environment and urbanisation were addressed comprehensively, Vedad Gürgen, General Director of Infrastructure and Urban Transformation at the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, Osman Çelik, General Manager of Vakıf Katılım, İnanç Kabadayı, Member of the Board of Directors of Ege Yapı & GYODER, Architect Sabri Paşayiğit, Sahip Selim Gökdemir, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Megapol İnşaat, and Azat Yeşil, Chairman of the Board of Directors of İzka İnşaat, shared their assessments.

"When we put people first, we will have green cities that are friendly to the environment, to nature and to animals as well"

Sharing his assessments at the TÜİT Take Notice of Cities, Build Cities in the Century of Türkiye Programme, MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı touched upon the importance of smart and technological cities and said that the reshaping understanding of urbanisation should not drift away from cultural and traditional values.

President Asmalı made the following statements in his assessment:

"MÜSİAD, which has reached a total of 165 branches and contact points in the international arena, both provides added value to the Turkish economy with its more than 13,000 members and nearly 60,000 companies and leads the development of different collaborations at home and abroad. MÜSİAD is a development movement that draws its strength from our rich values of civilisation and from Anatolian wisdom as much as it is a global cooperation and capital platform. In this sense, it is our greatest wish that the understanding of urbanisation we want to build be nourished by our ancient civilisation and our rich history. Moreover, by taking a lesson from what has been experienced in the recent past, such as disasters and distorted urbanisation processes, we can prevent mistakes from being repeated. As Yahya Kemal expressed, our three arts apart from 'founding states' and 'soldiery' are 'architecture', 'poetry' and 'music'. We have to once again attain our high, standard-setting line in architecture and build exemplary cities. Let us build smart cities, but let us not neglect the heart of cities. Let us have human-centred, virtuous cities as we had in history. When we put people first, we will have green cities that are friendly to the environment, to nature and to animals as well. Let us equip our cities with technological developments, but let us not kill the soul of our cities. From our home to our neighbourhood, from our village to our city, through the architecture we display we in fact reflect our soul, our vision and our understanding of existence. New generations are also shaped according to this architecture we reflect and develop in a high atmosphere of civilisation. In the hundredth year of our Republic, we are organizing this meeting themed Take Notice of Cities, Build Cities in the Century of Türkiye in order to create awareness. For, just as in our deep-rooted and magnificent history, we have ideals for our future. As our President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed at the Urbanisation Council, 'Urbanisation that is orderly but has no character cannot be our ideal.'"

"Every segment of society needs to become part of the processes with a sense of social responsibility"

MÜSİAD Construction and Building Materials Sector Board Chairman Cemil Yüksekdağ, in his speech at the programme, stated that every segment of society needs to become part of the processes with a sense of social responsibility and emphasized that they want to move forward together.

Yüksekdağ continued his words as follows:

"In the process that goes from the individual to the family, from the family to the neighbourhood and from neighbourhoods to cities, we create the cities we live in all together. Today, even though we have partly drifted away from the culture of living together because of the effect of the pandemic and of cultural and technological changes, we cannot uproot living, rejoicing, grieving and succeeding together from human nature and from the cultural codes of our ancient nation. In the century we live in, in our ageing world, climate change, seismicity, short-lived buildings caused by the consumer society and rapidly changing and transforming needs make renewal processes in the spaces we live in compulsory. By saying Take Notice, Build, the main theme of the TÜİT we are organizing today, it was intended to emphasize social awareness rather than the individual, and to underline the necessity for every segment of society to become part of the processes with a sense of social responsibility. As MÜSİAD, with this awareness, we too want to take responsibility and move forward together with the belief that 'We can build the cities we built together once again together.'"

MÜSİAD Urban Transformation Manifesto announced for the first time

Within the framework of the TÜİT Take Notice of Cities, Build Cities in the Century of Türkiye Programme, the strategy plan that will guide urban transformation efforts was also announced for the first time. The plan, published under the title of the Urban Transformation Manifesto, stated, "Let us build the cities of the future together with the guidance of the state, the dynamism of the private sector and the participation and effort of the citizen."

The following articles were included in the 10-article Urban Transformation Manifesto published by MÜSİAD.

1) We act by taking notice of the important role of urban transformation in leaving our cities to future generations as safe, sustainable living spaces without losing their identities, and in securing the lives of our people. In this direction, being aware that urban transformation is an issue that is above politics and a matter of life and security, we declare that we will support every effort to be made by our state on the development of MÜSİAD's urban transformation policies and on the sound and rapid progress of implementation processes.

2) With the painful and distressing experiences we have gained as a nation in the process we have come through, we now know that we must act with an understanding of urbanisation that manages disaster by taking notice of nature, rather than one that is exposed to disaster by opposing nature. Acting above all with respect for nature, for the environment and for people, we declare that, together with our members, we support the acceleration of urban transformation in disasters caused by earthquakes and climate change, and the necessity of taking measures before disasters occur.

3) We are aware of the responsibility that history has placed upon us, the Turkish Nation. With this mission, as one of the largest civil society organizations of the country, we believe in and embrace our state's principle of "We will build the brand cities of our civilisation bearing its traces with the New Türkiye Vision". We declare that we will carry out awareness efforts through all of MÜSİAD's platforms abroad and at home.

4) In urban transformation, alongside the aim of meeting the needs of our people, we attach importance to acting in our urbanisation and architectural approaches by taking notice of tradition and without separating the past from the future. In this direction, we wish to carry out processes that, with our cultural structure that keeps our civilisation alive, are in keeping with local architecture, meet future needs and enable our people to remain in place together with their memories, habits and attachments.

5) We see that migration to cities leads to unhealthy and irregular construction. As MÜSİAD, we support the creation of investment and employment across our country, regional development and the reduction of migration to cities. We believe that, together with urban transformation projects, the shanty settlements and distorted construction that have emerged in cities can be eliminated. We declare that we will be the supporter of the steps to be taken in this matter through planned and strategic approaches and public and private sector collaborations.

6) In the last 20 years, the transformation of more than 3 million housing units across the country has been carried out by the state. The ongoing urban transformation efforts and the social housing projects being produced please us. As the MÜSİAD family, we declare that we support the sustainable and increasing progress of our state's urban transformation mobilization.

7) We see that, with the steps taken, with the implementations carried out and with the support of our state institutions, particularly our Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change and our municipalities, urban transformation has spread to a significant degree and the level of social awareness has risen positively. In this accelerating process, the projects carried out through public-private sector-citizen cooperation create a broad agenda for themselves on the legal plane in that they involve more than one issue that may become a matter of dispute. We request that possible disputes be resolved first of all through mechanisms such as arbitration boards and mediation, and, if necessary, be addressed holistically by establishing Specialised Urban Transformation Courts.

8) With the My First Home, My First Land, My First Workplace Campaign, which is a housing acquisition policy directed at our low-income citizens through Social Housing, and with the My New Home Campaign directed at our middle-income citizens, our state shows that it stands by its citizens with an understanding of the social state. We declare that we value the will that has been demonstrated and that, as an actor of the private sector, we will support this policy.

9) We think that it is extremely important for social housing and urban transformation moves to be carried out through the joint efforts of the state and the citizen. In this context, we believe in the necessity of improving the cooperative system with state control and guarantee, of developing the undertaking system by increasing the citizen's access to suitable credit, and of thereby encouraging fast solution systems. We will carry out work within the MÜSİAD ecosystem for the development of these systems.

10) Let us build the cities of the future together with the guidance of the state, the dynamism of the private sector and the participation and effort of the citizen.