22.09.2018 Bolu
TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the 28th Term Economic Consultation Meeting of the Assembly Members of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce in Bolu and shared his experiences with the members of the Assembly.
Stressing that the most beneficent of men is he who is beneficent unto
others, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Today we came together with the
same understanding. This work is a matter of vision. It is our understanding that
consultation is Sunnah. Today we are all in consultation. I would like to
congratulate President Gürsel Baran, the
Board of Directors and the Assembly Chairman Mustafa Deryal, who brought us
together with this vision.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Ankara Chamber of Commerce is an institution of
learning and that he has learned the importance of the unity here.
Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that the number of cities with a population
of over 1 million in the world was 77 in 1950. “There were only 2 cities with over
10 million people. Today, the number of metropolitan cities reached 436, and
the number of mega cities reached 23. In 1950, 740 million people lived in
cities. Today, 4 billion people do. Cities will compete instead of countries in
the future. Brand cities are in competition.”
TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed that Turkey stands no chance at prosperity
without investors.
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that ATO has done very important works to increase
both the attractiveness and the brand value of Ankara, one of which is
increasing the international direct flights and the other is the construction
of the fairground.
Stating that entrepreneurship is prosperity, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We
were a self-contained country until the late Özal arrived. He expanded our
horizons. Our exports in the 80s were 3 billion USD. Today we are exporting 170
billion USD. How far we’ve come. TOBB brought entrepreneurship to the top of Turkey's
agenda. That's why we established our women and young entrepreneur boards. There
isn’t a university I haven’t visited. I explained entrepreneurship everywhere.
I want young people to understand entrepreneurship.”
Pointing out that success will not come without dreaming, Hisarcıklıoğlu
said, “You’re freest in your dreams. Keep your dream wide. Muhammad Ali said a
man without imagination has no wings. Without imagination, Christopher Columbus
would not discover America. It's the only place where you don't have limits.
Imagine your goal. But it's important to work for the goal. We need to work
systematically.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that he always cared a lot about the teamwork and
said: “In my youth I read that a great businessman named Andrew Carnegie wrote on
his grave: ‘There is someone here who employs smarter people than himself. Those
who employ smart people win. I've always called myself a smart man. In my business
life, I have always employed smart people. The greatest capital is mind. I'm
from Kayseri but I'm not sorry for the money I've given to smart people.”
Pointing out that there are problems in the economy, Hisarcıklıoğlu
said, “We experienced something like this in 2001. I was newly elected as TOBB
President. In our lap, we have found the biggest crisis of our history. So what
did we do? First, we read the crisis right. This is similar to this; If the
first button of the shirt is wrongly buttoned, the rest will be wrong. The 2001
crisis was the crisis of our faulty lifestyle. Both the public and the private
sector had to change. And we began to change ourselves. We have a disease. We
look like a Teflon pan. We do not accept anything; we do not accept our faults.
We all say change, but nobody starts the change with themselves. So we said, let
us start with ourselves first, to correct ourselves. First we created a common cause.
I visited all the chambers-exchanges. Then we came together with people from
many different environments. We made a call conference. Many projects that have
taken place today have come out of there.”
Reminding that they started SME Support Loan, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Our
banks and our chambers provide resources with rates of 1.85% monthly and 22%
annually. 25% of the resources of the chambers / commodity exchanges were transferred
here.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that without unity and solidarity, there will be
no success and that they should not marginalize anyone.