Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) President Abdurrahman Kaan said: "We remember 10 August. We saw the attacks that were carried out against our economy and in fact against our social unity. Economic power has become the most important trump card put on the table in today's world; therefore, in the new period MÜSİAD is ready to do its utmost to work this trump card in favour of its own homeland and state, and it will do so."
Speaking at the morning session of MÜSİAD's 25th Ordinary General Assembly, Kaan briefed the participants on the work carried out and on the restructuring process.
"We are marathon runners. Short distances are not for us," said Kaan, adding that running a marathon is a test of endurance and that, alongside physical strength, it requires a firm will, the courage to take on the road, belief in the power of one's own existence, and patience.
Pointing out that running a marathon is not a momentary show of strength but a challenge, Kaan stated the following:
"MÜSİAD is a tradition that challenges not today but tomorrow. MÜSİAD passed through its current process as a structure that produces projects and develops concrete, purpose-oriented solutions. On the other hand, it disciplined its own targets in the steps it will take towards the future. While conditions and paths were changing in our country and in the world, remaining idle and ignoring this would not have befitted us. MÜSİAD had to calculate not only for today but for 5 years, even 15 and 20 years ahead.
Targets alone are not enough; stakeholders, policies and agreements directed towards these targets were needed. Today MÜSİAD is perceived almost as a consultation and idea-gathering institution across a very wide spectrum, from politics to bureaucracy, from art to the economy, from trade to capital and to diplomacy. In the new process we are finally completing the infrastructure work that will make this data flow far more functional and continuous. For this reason, we will run the structures we have named MÜSİAD Global and MÜSİAD Local with the logic of the MÜSİAD Economic and Commercial Field.
"MÜSİAD Now Defines Itself as a Capital Base and a Data Centre"
Kaan said that MÜSİAD now defines itself as a capital base and a data centre.
Conveying that the partnership or joint work proposals received from the public sector, the private sector or international institutions and organizations both make them proud and encourage them, Kaan noted that they define this model as the MÜSİAD Stakeholding and Partnerships Portal.
Kaan stated that in the new period MÜSİAD has completed all its infrastructure work in order to work more actively and more systematically than ever in the fields of culture, art and sport, in the field of education, and in the fields of social responsibility and legislation development, for the survival and the welfare of its country, its history, its values and its generations.
Noting that MÜSİAD is a spirited part of the story and the adventure that Türkiye has written in a difficult geography, he said: "There were even times when it was the story itself. We reached our present day by passing through many trials. We did not falter. We grew tired, but we did not show it. Because we know that the strength of believing and devoted people lies in their hearts, not in their knees. In every difficult trial we came to ourselves with the voice rising from our hearts. We said, 'No stopping, carry on.'"
Also commemorating the former presidents in his speech, Kaan said that they were fine people who had proved to the whole world what it means to dream, to believe and to struggle.
"We Completed This Beautiful Building of Ours as Türkiye's Most Prestigious Capital Base"
Recalling the election processes Türkiye has gone through since they took office, Kaan reminded that in the 24 June elections the understanding of political administration changed and the state adopted a new model of governance.
Kaan continued as follows:
"We spent this period by accelerating our preparation and project development work. We accelerated our domestic and international expansion network. We did not want to set out early and take great risks within a state system whose evolution we did not know. We completed this beautiful building of ours as Türkiye's most prestigious capital base. During this period MÜSİAD moved beyond the classical capital organization model and gained a strong platform structure that produces and presents projects, develops partnerships and moves forward together with public institutions. We made our new and very comprehensive projects within the investment-trade-production triangle ready for the new period. We established the matching and needs-identification processes of the global and local structures. We named the capital and resource generation and partnership building model that this new structure will create within itself MÜSİAD İnvest-Yatırım."
Briefing the participants on the other work carried out, Kaan reported that in the new period they aim to run all parties to the projects within a certain coordination.
" Whatever We Do, It Is for This Country and for Our Future"
Kaan said: "We remember 10 August. We saw the attacks that were carried out against our economy and in fact against our social unity. As you know, economic power has become the most important trump card put on the table in today's world; therefore, in the new period MÜSİAD is ready to do its utmost to work this trump card in favour of its own homeland and state, and it will do so.
The breadth of our areas of expansion permits this. Our tradition, our business culture and our partnerships permit this," he assessed.
President Kaan mentioned that MÜSİAD now aims to grow along the investment-trade-production axis by developing both its own capital and the capital strength of its members and by multiplying national wealth.
"For this purpose we are establishing an office in which all financial and operational processes will be followed separately," said Kaan, who explained the following:
"We hope for the beginning of a more expansionist period in economic terms, such as generating funds, developing resources in capital, incorporating, establishing agencies to increase exports and the efficiency of trade, and establishing goods and service bases in the untapped trade areas of the world. The capital accumulation that multi-partner structures will bring us will make us far more effective and stronger.
In the end we are MÜSİAD. We are Türkiye. Whatever we do is for this country. Whatever we do is for our future. Whatever we do, we do together. Today there is a great responsibility that comes with being an active capital platform at 87 points in 81 provinces locally and at 224 contact points in 94 countries globally."
Kaan expressed the wish that the new building and the 25th Ordinary General Assembly would be auspicious.
Within the scope of the General Assembly, Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology Hasan Büyükdede, Deputy Minister of Treasury and Finance Nureddin Nebati and former MÜSİAD President Ömer Cihad Vardan delivered greeting speeches.
Change of duty on the board of directors
Within the scope of the general assembly, MÜSİAD Deputy Presidents Mahmut Asmalı and Ali Gür, MÜSİAD Vice President İsrafil Kuralay and Members of the Board of Directors Melike Günyüz, Ömer Faruk Akbal, Burak Benşin, Soner Meşe, Mehmet Ünal, Halim Aydın and Bayram Şenocak, whose terms of office had expired, handed over their duties. The new Board of Directors was composed of Abdurrahman Kaan, Ali Reis Topçu, Adnan Bostan, Kerim Altıntaş, Mehmet Akif Özyurt, Ahmet Şekerli, Oktay Dede, Burhan Özdemir, Hikmet Köse, Gökhan Yetkin, İsa Albayrak, Muhammet Ali Özeken, İbrahim Uyar, Mehmet Güverçin, Ali Gökhan Er, Fatih Mehmet Keçebir, Mustafa Buluntu, Abdulsamet Temel, Ramazan Bingöl, Fatih Arslan and Yunus Furkan Akbal.