06.02.2018 Ankara
The General Assembly of Customs and Tourism Enterprises (GTI) Co. Inc. was held in Ankara with the participation of TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu.
In his speech at the General Assembly, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu
thanked everyone who contributed to the successful endeavors of GTI.
“If the intent is beneficent, the outcome will be beneficent,” said
Hisarcıklıoğlu. Stating that they began this endeavor in 2005 with beneficent intentions,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said that because of a lack of investment in Turkey's land
customs gates despite half of Turkey’s foreign trade being conducted over land
routes, sub-optimal conditions would result in added costs and problems.
Stating that this negatively impacted their members, and by extension
all of Turkey, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Because of the security problems in the
border crossings, all of Turkey suffered. We asked the government to let us do
it. They put their trust in this community. When we dreamed about this and
started our journey, our 137 Chambers and Commodity Exchanges understood us and
gave of their labor and heart to this endeavor. There is a saying in our
culture, 'Grace and prosperity in unity; anguish in dissent.’ With our unity
and solidarity, success prosperity came.”
Noting that no such project exists anywhere else in the world,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “I’ll say it very clearly: GTI Co. Inc. is today one of
Turkey's most important values as well as one of its most remarkable success
stories. This success, is the result of the vision of the community and the
nature of our strength together as the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges
of Turkey. This is your work. It is the most concrete indication of what we can
win, what we can achieve for our country when we come together.”
Stating that GTI Co. Inc. is today's most successful example of public-private
sector cooperation, the TOBB President stated that it is and exemplary project not
only in Turkey but the world.
Hisarcıklıoğlu reported that the United Nations points to this project for
the whole world, that they should 'do as TOBB does if they want to make their customs
safe and fast like Turkey.
Hisarcıklıoğlu explained that they started to work with countries in the
region in this regard, “If we can transfer the experience we’ve acquired and the
exemplary model created in Turkey to countries on the Silk Route, then we would
benefit as well as our whole region. To this end, we have come to the point of
modernizing the customs gates of various countries of the region. We started to
work in Iran and Central Asian countries. I hope we will all do it together.”