Young MÜSİAD, the youth structure of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD), managed to become the Youth Civil Society Organization that played the most active role, with the events it held throughout the quarantine period that has continued since March
The great majority of Türkiye has spent life at home since the beginning of March because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Keeping pace with digital transformation from the very first moment the pandemic began, Young MÜSİAD moved all its national and international events, primarily its committee meetings, to digital platforms. With the events it organized through its 56 branches in Türkiye and its 29 representatives abroad, Young MÜSİAD managed to become the Youth Civil Society Organization organizing the most events in this field.
Starting its work rapidly from March, when the Coronavirus (Covid-19) case was first seen in Türkiye, Young MÜSİAD brought together Türkiye's leading names from academia, industry and the business world on online platforms with the “Pleasant Conversations” series it launched.
Young MÜSİAD President Yunus Furkan Akbal, who made statements about the work carried out by Young MÜSİAD, used the following words:
“After the spread of the Coronavirus outbreak, people began to spend more time in digital environments. As Young MÜSİAD, we too wanted to turn this negative situation into an advantage and began our work in this direction. Throughout the pandemic period, we carried out our process management with the 192 events we held across Türkiye.
After the first case was seen in Türkiye, we pioneered digital organizations by holding a live broadcast on Youtube with ARZUM CEO Murat Kolbaşı.
In addition, thanks to our online events, we brought together with our members figures from the world of politics: AK Party Deputy Chairman and Party Spokesperson Mahir Ünal, Deputy Minister of Trade Rıza Tuna Turagay, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yavuz Selim Kıran and Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports İhsan Selim Baydaş.
We Brought Together Names Each More Valuable Than the Other with Young Entrepreneurs
In our online programmes organized under the heading “Pleasant Conversations”, we brought together with our members many names, including Birol Güven, who has often been talked about with the series Çocuklar Duymasın and 80’ler, Prof. Dr. Nihat Hatipoğlu, the indispensable name of Ramadan programmes, and Prof.Dr.Kerem Alkin, one of the leading names in the field of economics, as well as Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Yusuf Yeşil and Murat Çiçek.
With the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy, we launched “Online Project Cycle Management” training in order to develop our members in this area and thereby enable them to write projects in the long term.
We continued our 3T (Get to Know, Introduce, Do Trade) programme, one of Young MÜSİAD's most important projects, throughout the pandemic period. In order to increase communication among our members and to grow our trade volume, we moved this project Online. Thanks to this project, we clearly saw that trade among our members spread even during the pandemic period. In addition, with our Coronavirus & E-Export programme, which we organized with Aliexpress Türkiye CEO Yaman Alpata on the subjects of Effective Communication and Diction and Project Management in order to contribute to our members' personal development, we addressed the topics of E-Commerce and E-Export, which became a trend especially in this period. Thanks to the online surveys we conducted, we measured the effect of COVID-19 on entrepreneurs and tried to determine the steps we would take accordingly. Also in this period, we raised the number of our branches abroad to 29 by adding Strasbourg in France and India to our branches abroad.
By Organizing International Events We Determined a Road Map for the Pandemic Period
For our ongoing international projects, we held online consultation meetings both as World Presidents and with our Young MÜSİAD members. With the participation of representatives of 21 countries together with our brother country Indonesia, we shared, along with the subject of Youth Unemployment and Solution Proposals, the early measures Türkiye took during the COVID-19 process and its successful strategy. At the meeting attended by the OIC Indonesia Youth Council, ICYF and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we also conveyed the aid our country provided to 30 countries. Again, with the Zimem Ledger we recalled our values that have almost been forgotten, and we did not remain indifferent to the blood donation call made by the Turkish Red Crescent, supporting this campaign together with all our members. In this difficult period, we thank the members of our Board of Directors, our Branch Presidents around the world, our Committee Chairmen and our esteemed members for their devoted work.
Our struggle against the Coronavirus is not over yet; without letting go of precautions, we will continue to act in accordance with the rules and to bring many of our projects to life so that our young brothers and sisters may be more conscious and more experienced.”