31.07.2019 İstanbul
The 1st General Assembly of the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry / Turkic Union of Chambers, established to support the development of bilateral trade and investment relations between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, was held in İstanbul hosted by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), in partnership with the Turkic Speaking Countries Cooperation Council (Turkic Council). TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu was elected as the first president of the Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
At
the opening of the General Assembly, Minister of Commerce Ruhsar Pekcan, TOBB
President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Secretary General of the Turkic Council
Baghdad Amreyev, President of Azerbaijan Confederation of Employers Mammad
Musayev, Kazakhstan Chamber of National Entrepreneurs President Ablay
Myrzahhmetov and President of the Kyrgyz Republic Chamber of Commerce and
Industry gave speeches.
In
his speech, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu explained the establishment
process of the Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry and said, “It is our
duty to engender close cooperation between businessmen of our countries
systematic. It would be beneficial for TOBB to handle this endeavor together
with the chambers of commerce and industry of Turkish-speaking countries.
Fortunately, we have realized this great project.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
reminded that they signed the founding charter of the Turkish CCI in May within
the Council of Cooperation of Turkic Speaking Countries (Turkic Council).
“Along with our Union, the Azerbaijan Employers’ Confederation, Kazakhstan
International Entrepreneurs Chamber, Kyrgyz Republic CCI are the Chamber’s
first members. Their presidents are with us today. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
are not members yet. But I hope we will see them as members soon. Uzbekistan is
here today. We have already prepared the Statute that we have signed so as to
be open to the participation of the Turkmen and Uzbek Chambers. Thus in the
first phase, the Turkic CCI will be comprised of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan. Then there may be further
participation.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
said that these 6 countries mean an economic size of 1.1 trillion USD and a
population of 160 million.
Stating
that the Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry will start its first General
Assembly, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the permanent secretariat of the Chamber
will be in the TOBB Istanbul Service Building and that TOBB will provide all
support for the office and staff.
- “We are ready to share our
experiences”
Hisarcıklıoğlu,
President of TOBB, emphasized that they will establish cooperation on a more
solid foundation and make it more institutional. “We need this. For development
and prosperity, the development of the private sector is essential. For a strong
private sector, a strong chamber system is required. Turkey is a good example
of how a strong chamber system supports and develops the private sector. We are
ready to support and share our experiences in this direction.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
said that together with Kazak-ATEMEKEN, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Uzbek Chambers,
they established bilateral Chamber of Commerce and Industry Forums and will
continue to share their experiences in these areas.
- Entrepreneurship is the only way for
people to prosper
Pointing
out that having natural resources is no longer sufficient for development,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Almost every country sees this fact and the fields other
than oil / natural gas are being emphasized more. We must diversify and develop
our economic structure. For this, we need to strengthen entrepreneurship by
turning to industry and trade. This is the only way to make our countries and
peoples prosperous.”
Emphasizing
the need to increase trade volume first, Hisarcıklıoğlu said: “One of the
important issues in trade is customs crossings. In our geography, land customs
gates are of great importance. We are sitting on the historical Silk Road. As
TOBB, we have great experience and success in renewing and operating them. without
consuming a single Lira from our government, we renewed Turkey's largest 10
land border crossings. Our projects were lauded by the United Nations as a
success story and cited as an example to the world. We are ready to share our
experience in this field.
In
Turkey, another issue we give importance to is entrepreneurship. We achieved a
global success in two areas by increasing entrepreneurs and developing the
private sector. We have made great progress in tourism in the last 30 years. We
are among the top 6 tourism destinations in the world. In the international
contracting sector, we rose to the 2nd place in the world. To date,
our contractors have successfully undertaken projects with a total value of 400
billion USD in 108 countries. They became a world brand. We have seen how
important it is to integrate into the global economy, open up to international
trade and global competition.
In
1980, while Özal opened the country with his reforms, we supported the process
as the business world. As we entered the Customs Union with the EU in the
mid-1990s, we did not avoid competition with European companies. As a result,
we have become one of the most important suppliers in Europe in many sectors
from automotive to home appliances. After 2002, under the leadership of our
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we bravely implemented structural reforms. As a
result, we became one of the fastest emerging countries from the global crisis
in 2009. In the last 20 years, the international capital that has come to our
country has exceeded 210 billion USD.
- “Trade is the greatest source of
peace and prosperity”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
reminded that the European countries, which were in ruins after the two great
world wars, established economic unity among themselves and developed the trade
between them, growing and prospering together.
Pointing
out that trade is the greatest source of peace and prosperity, Hisarcıklıoğlu
said, “We must first remove the trade barriers between our countries and
increase trade with each other. We have to write an EU-like success story. I
see the Turkic Business Council and the Turkic CCI as strategic steps that will
enable us to achieve this goal. Thus, solidarity between us will increase and
new opportunities for cooperation will develop. I believe that if we put our
hands together, if our governments and business world works together, the
Turkic world will write new success stories.”
- Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan
Trade
Minister Ruhsar Pekcan emphasized that the establishment of the Turkish Chamber
of Commerce and Industry as an important institution of the Secretariat of the
Cooperation Council of the Turkic Speaking Countries is an important
development.
Ruhsar
Pekcan emphasized that the reason for not increasing the mutual trade is not
inadmissibility, "This is because of the logistical barriers between us.
As a proof of our cooperation, we need to be able to engage more, to overcome
the logistical obstacles and to pave the way for our trade. We want to see the
Caspian as a sea that unites us and not separates us.”
Pekcan
stated that the share of Turkish Council members in the world trade volume
reached 522 billion USD with an increase of 5% in 2018 and when Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan are included, it reached 558.6 billion USD in 2018.
Stating
that it is possible to gain a larger share of this trade by working together
more, strengthening the legal infrastructure and product diversity, Pekcan said,
“Although we have progress made in recent years, unfortunately it is not enough
- it is time to reflect our strong ties on our trade relations. We must reflect
our real potential on our relationships by increasing our mutual investments
and trade.”
Stating
that they should increase the number of seminars, business forums between the
member countries, indicating perhaps joint trade fairs also could be held
Pekcan said, “As Turkey we do not view only natural resources as points of regional
cooperation. The world is undergoing a technological transformation. We give
importance to education in our region as the Turkic Chamber of Commerce.”
Pekcan,
referring to the plans to provide training on export support as the Ministry,
said, “as soon as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to join the Turkic Council will
strengthen our corporate structure.”
- “A common trade chain should
unite us”
Baghdad
Amreyev, Secretary General of the Council of Turkic Speaking Countries
Cooperation (Turkic Council), said that today the Chamber of Commerce and
Industry has come together for the opening of the Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and that they believe that this chamber will create an elite brand in
the Turkic world.
At
the Turkic Council Leaders Summit, last year, state leaders touched on the
strengthening of cooperation, and Amreyev stressed that commercial relations
could be improved seriously with the establishment of the joint chamber.
Amreyev
stated that they are working to create new mechanisms, “We aim to undertake a
number of joint endeavors. The creation of a joint investment fund and aimed for
support for SMEs. With the establishment of such a fund, we will have a
powerful tool.”
President
of the Azerbaijan Confederation of Employers Mammad Musayev stressed that they
will develop works in this chamber, “Now we are one nation over 6 states. We
have a wide range of opportunities. We need to bring these together. It is very
auspicious work to open the way for business.”
Ablay
Myrzahhmetov, President of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan,
gave information about the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs.
President
of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic Marat Sharshekeev
said that the Turkic-speaking countries are uniting step by step, “The first
general assembly, the first secretary general election will be held today. It
is easy to speak of trade, but selling is difficult. Some political and other
problems can create obstacles to trade. A trade chain should unite us and
eliminate the problems.”
- Hisarcıklıoğlu elected first
President of the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Following
the speeches, the 1st General Assembly of the Turkic Chamber of
Commerce and Industry was held. TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu was elected the
first President of the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry by a joint resolution
of the four founding member countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan.
The
Permanent Secretariat will be located in Istanbul; the Chamber will carry out
its services from TOBB’s building. In addition, it was decided that one of the
five delegates from each country should be a woman.