24.11.2020 Ankara
The President of the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, said at the Turkic CCI General Assembly held online that they are located right in the middle of the historical Silk Road and called for more active use of the 'middle corridor' for transports to Central Asia and beyond.
“This corridor will
give us a cost advantage in every way. We must make the Caspian Sea the sea
that unites us, not divides us. In this context, we should expand the transport
lines which operate between Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan at regular
and competitive prices.”
The 2nd
General Assembly of the Turkic CCI was held online under the leadership of M.
Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of the Turkic CCI and President of the Union of
Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), with the participation of Ambassador
Bahgdad Amreyev, Secretary General of the Turkic Council, and the heads of
business organizations of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary and
Uzbekistan.
In his speech,
Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that while celebrating Azerbaijan's victory, a new
opportunity for hope has been born, especially in logistics, to reach Central
Asia directly through Azerbaijan. “The Lachin Corridor is a great opportunity
for us. As TOBB, we are open to all cooperation to this end,” Hisarcıklıoğlu
said.
- 580 billion dollars of trade volume reached
Hisarcıklıoğlu, who
reported that the Turkish Council members reached a volume of $580 billion in
trade with the world last year, said, “Due to the pandemic, we expect a loss of
20% for 2020. In 2021, we hope to increase figures again. As members of the
Turkic Council, the volume of trade among us does not satisfy us either. With
the steps we will take in the field of production, marketing and logistics, we
have the opportunity to significantly increase the trade among us. Essentially, we should aim for more in trade
and investment between our countries. For this, we must make the investment
environment more investor-friendly.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu said
that Turkey has taken continuous steps to expand and deepen its relations with
the Turkic world, and that Turkish entrepreneurs have investments of close to
$17 billion in Turkic Council member countries. Likewise, Hisarcıklıoğlu said
that the investments of Turkic Council member countries in Turkey are around
$20 billion, “These investments provide employment to tens of thousands of
people. We also have serious initiatives in the service sector.”