Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Zyabbarov and the accompanying delegation visited the MÜSİAD Head Office and held a meeting with President Mahmut Asmalı and his delegation.

The Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) hosted at its Head Office Marat Zyabbarov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, who also serves as Minister of Agriculture and Food, and his delegation. MÜSİAD Vice President Davut Altunbaş and MÜSİAD Board of Directors Members Osman Nuri Önügören, Selim Sar, Fahrettin Oylum, Abdullah Bozatlı, Altuğ Karataş, İsmail Somalı and İsmail Altın also took part in the meeting chaired by MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı.

“We Must Take Our Commercial Partnership to the Next Level”

Speaking during the meeting, MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı said: “We must take our commercial partnership and our volume with Tatarstan to the next level. We have agreed to carry out the necessary work on this matter. We will continue to work to develop our country's exports and to open the way for new opportunities.”

President Asmalı continued his speech as follows:

We are greatly honoured to host at our Head Office the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Food of Tatarstan, Mr. Zyabbarov, and his delegation. We share a common heritage with Tatarstan in terms of kinship and culture. At the same time, our commercial partnership also continues via the Russian Federation. Our main aim is to establish a joint cooperation and to take this commercial partnership to the next level. By raising our trade volume, we can strengthen the bond between the two countries even further. It is pleasing for us that the Tatarstan delegation will take part in the Halal EXPO Fair being held in our country today. We hope that such participation, meetings and collaborations will increase even further. On this occasion, as MÜSİAD, we await them at our MÜSİAD EXPO Fair, which we have maintained without interruption since 1993 and which we made great efforts to hold even during the pandemic period. MÜSİAD EXPO'24, which we will hold in November 2024, will host both global commercial partnerships and broad international participation.

Our Trade Volume with Türkiye Is Increasing

Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Zyabbarov, for his part, said in his speech: “Our commercial partnership with Türkiye is becoming steadily stronger and is increasing. We have a trade volume that has risen to USD 1.2 billion with twofold growth over last year. We aim to increase this.”

In his speech, Zyabbarov continued his remarks as follows:

“Tatarstan is coming together today with the MÜSİAD delegation in order to continue joint working activities. First of all, we would like to thank the esteemed President for this hospitality. As Tatarstan, we are in cooperation with Türkiye on participation in events, developing commercial connections and building significant strength. Within the scope of this cooperation, the Turkish Consulate General in Kazan and our Tatarstan representatives are engaged in joint activity. We too are continuing to maintain this situation. In this scope, by concluding sister city agreements, we have signed a total of 9 new sister city agreements with Türkiye. We have established a sound basis for regular flights with Türkiye and are maintaining it. Türkiye is one of Tatarstan's important commercial partners, and this partnership continues to grow. We aim to raise our trade volume, which we have increased twofold compared with last year to the level of USD 1.2 billion, even higher through valuable institutions such as MÜSİAD.”
Touching also on the significant investments of Turkish companies in Tatarstan, Zyabbarov said: “Investment coming from Türkiye to Tatarstan has exceeded USD 2 billion. This is highly pleasing for us. Of course, Tatar companies have also begun activities to carry out a series of projects in Türkiye. Our joint work continues in areas such as construction, oil and mining.”
Touching also on the fact that Tatarstan has a developed infrastructure, Zyabbarov said: “Oil and the chemical industry form the basis of our economy. Of course, I should also say that we have a strong infrastructure. Half of the products manufactured in Tatarstan are in a condition to be exported. Within the Russian Federation, Tatarstan is in a leading position in agricultural production. In addition to starting the production of industrial goods such as aircraft and ammunition, we have also made progress in information technologies. We can work jointly with Turkish companies in all of these sectors and broaden our areas of cooperation.”

At the meeting, while the Tatarstan delegation presented its activities as a government through the presentation it made, presentations were also given on MÜSİAD's domestic and international activities.