29.04.2014 Greece
TOBB President, EUROCHAMBRES Vice President and ABC Board Member M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the Association of Balkan Chambers (ABC) 1st General Assembly of 2014.
Speaking in regards to the trends in the global economy during his
speech, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Since
2008, we’ve had a very hard time. The global economic crisis hit our economies
very bad. We have seen the negative effects of being too much connected to the
core European countries. After good growth rates in the United States, now we
are facing the recovery in the Eurozone countries. This is great news for our
economies. But, we have to be careful. The upcoming period, will also be a hard
period for us. We are now entering a new period in global economy. Four major
trends, are rewriting the rules of the global economy.
After the global
financial crisis, we have faced the QE period. I called this as the QUARANTINE
period. FED kept the global economy under quarantine with more and more US dollar
issuing. After recovery in the United States, the tapering period started. Fund
flows into developing countries, will decrease. In other words, financing will
be lower. This will make life harder for business in the long-run. New
investments and growth will be harder. We have to set up our game plan. We need
to develop instruments, for more cooperation among Balkan countries.
- “They will rewrite the rules”
Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating that the developing countries are taking a
larger share of the global trade, said that the USA has taken steps to reverse
this trend.
Stating that the USA is redesigning global trade, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that the Trans-Pacific
Trade Partnership (TPP) was formed 3 years ago with 13 pacific countries.
“All major pacific
countries, except China, will be in this partnership. Canada, Mexico,
Australia, Korea, Chile, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore are some of the members.
Last year, they also started the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP) with the European Union. These new partnerships account for two thirds
of global economy. In other words, two thirds of the global economy is forming
a new club.
This is not only a
trade club. It’s also an investment club. They will set the rules of global
trade, and the standards of all goods and services. This will affect all of us
directly.
We, as Balkan
countries, should be very careful at this moment. Because we are a part of
Europe. Some of us are in the European Union, and the rest of us, are expecting
to become a member in the upcoming years. There are two important problems at
this point.
First of all, we have
to investigate the possible effects of this new trade regime on the Balkan
countries. The EU institutions are working on some research reports, but all of
them are focusing on core European countries. So, we have to initiate a new
research report, focusing on the impacts of TTIP on Balkan economies. And, we
have to start lobbying in Brussels for our rights.
Secondly, as you all
know, not all of us are EU members. But, we have customs union or FTAs with the
EU. So, we will be an open market for the American and Pacific firms. But their
markets will be closed for us. As Balkan countries, we have to defend our
rights collectively. And we have to ask the European Commission to include all
Balkan countries to the TTIP. I believe our Greek friends can help us, in these
efforts, as the term president of the European Union.
- “Drawing in entrepreneurs
will be a key factor for success”
Stating that countries are
fighting to attract innovative entrepreneurs, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “The USA and
Canada give easy visas to entrepreneurs. Innovation companies are settling down
in the USA day by day. The numbers confirm this. Of the entrepreneurs working
in Silicon Valley, 52% were born outside the USA.
It is obvious that in
the upcoming years, countries which attract more entrepreneurs will gain most. Importing
entrepreneurs will be a key success factor. But, as Balkan countries, we are
losing our entrepreneurs. We should have a strategy to attract more and more
entrepreneurs.”
- “Countries are competing with
their cities”
Emphasizing the increasing importance of cities, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Middle class is growing all around the world and they
live in cities. Today 1.5 billion people live in the world’s top six hundred
cities. Half of the world’s GDP comes from these cities.
In ten years’ time,
the population of these cities will reach to 2 billion. Their economic power
will expand too. This means cities are the major attractiveness of the
countries. Nowadays countries are competing with their cities. As Balkan
countries, we should also be careful about this trend change. We should invest
more and more in our cities. This is also very important to be successful in
tourism.
- Turkey’s goal is 50 million
tourists
Stating that, as Balkan countries they are very fortunate in regards to
tourism, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We
have nature, culture, history. We are having more than 70 million tourists each
year. But, only France is getting 83 million tourists each year. This means, we
have more potential.
I am very glad to
tell you that, Turkey was the 6th tourism destination, in the world in 2013.
Over the last 7 years the number of tourists, who visited Turkey, has increased
by 60%.
Our goal is to
attract 50 million tourists, and have 50 billion USD in income from tourism.
But, Turkey is not the only location, to have strong potential in our region.
With their natural beauties, and historical background, all Balkan countries
have far more tourism potential than we imagine. The only thing, we should do,
is cooperation, and joint projects.
For example, we can
arrange joint tourism packages, in order to attract more tourists from Far
East, America and from the Pacific countries. If tourists from those countries
want to see, İstanbul, Athens, Sarajevo and Bucharest in a tour, we should
provide them the best option, with our joint effort. And, we should design our
cities accordingly. Every city should have a different characteristic. They
should be different, not similar. They should complement each other. Turkey has
a great experience on tourism sector. Also Greece is very successful in
tourism. I think, we, as Balkan business community, can start a new
period. Also, we need our governments’
strong support. If there is no government help, our efforts will not be
successful.”
Accompanying Hisarcıklıoğlu during ABC’s General Assembly were TOBB
Board Member Ebubekir Bal and TOBB Foreign Affairs Commission Member Ergün
Efendioğlu.