10.11.2021 İstanbul
Speaking at the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Forum in Istanbul, TOBB and Turkic CCI President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As member and observer states of the Turkic Council, we have an economic size of $1.1 trillion, a foreign trade volume of $560 billion and a population of 160 million. Even these figures alone show how, when we come together, we can become a great global power.” Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed that in order to mobilize this power, they must first increase economic integration among themselves.
TOBB and Turkic CCI
President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Turkic Council Secretary-General Baghdad
Amreyev, Azerbaijan Confederation of Owners (ASK) President Mammad Musayev
attended the Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Forum, which was
established to support the development of bilateral trade and investment
relations between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan
and Hungary, and was organized within the scope of the 3rd General Assembly of
the Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Nariman Abilshaikov, 1st Vice President of the National
Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (ATAMEKEN), Dr Adham
Ikramov, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan, and
Roman Kasymov, 1st Senior Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce
and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic, were also present.
TOBB and Turkic CCI
President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu addressed the importance of co-operation in
his speech at the Business Forum. Reminding that the “8th Leaders' Summit of
the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking Countries” will take place on
Friday, November 12th, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We, as the Turkic
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, wanted to come together as a business
community to mark this Summit. On the one hand, we want to compile the opinions
and suggestions of the business world and transfer them to the Summit. On the
other hand, we bring our companies together to provide an environment for them
to have business meetings.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that they established the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the
agreement they signed in Nur-Sultan in 2019 and reported that in a short time,
the Chamber became one of the most effective institutional structures of the
Turkic Council family.
“It is our duty to
systematically make the close cooperation between the businessmen of our
countries systematic. Reminding that it would be useful for TOBB to handle this
work together with the chambers of commerce and industry of Turkic-speaking
countries, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Praise Allah, we have realized this great
project. Shortly after its establishment, despite Covid-19, we organized 5
major business forums: Tashkent, Baku-Karabakh and Budapest. During the
Karabakh war, our heads of the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry went to
Baku and supported the people of Azerbaijan in this rightful conflict.”
- Let's liberate trade
TOBB and Turkic CCI
President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu called for making trade between them more
liberal with preferential trade agreements. “We have done this with Azerbaijan.
The Preferential Trade Agreement came into force on March 1, 2021. Our mutual
investments are over $30 billion. Our trade volume is also moving rapidly
towards the goal of $15 billion. We should be able to add service trade to our
bilateral trade. There is also an opportunity for serious cooperation between
our countries in the service sector. We need an agreement that will facilitate
the trade of services.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
mentioned that an international standard “Arbitration” is needed to attract
investors to the country, and before Turkey accepted arbitration, foreign
direct capital investment was only $1 billion a year and increased to more than
$10 billion after its adoption.
- Remove transit quotas
Hisarcıklıoğlu said:
“Another issue is standardizing customs processes and accelerating crossings.
We must set common standards in customs procedures and make processes simple
and fast.
We need to get to the
e-truck system together. Like the Caspian Sea, we must use a very important
crossing point in a more active and less costly way. If we do these things, we
will also make the ‘middle corridor,’ that is, our region, stand out in the
transports on the China-Europe line. In this context, we should also remove the
transit quotas for each other.
More trade is provided
with more entrepreneurs and the stronger private sector. In order to develop
entrepreneurship and the private sector in our countries, we also need a strong
Chamber system. Turkey has significant achievements and experience in this
regard. We are ready to share these with you.
In addition, in this
context, we need to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among women and
young people.
As TOBB, we have been
working very actively in this field since 2007. Our women's and young
entrepreneurial boards have become among the largest organizations in Europe.
With their projects, trainings and studies, the number of women and young
entrepreneurs has increased.
In today's General
Assembly, our Women Entrepreneurs Board held its first meeting
On the other hand, we
need new projects in the field of information and software, where we can
improve our cooperation.
In this regard, I
attach great importance to the work of Kazakhstan's Astana Financial Center –
Astana Hub.
In addition, many
technoparks established in our country in recent years provide services to
improve this cooperation. Uzbekistan,
Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan are also working on this issue.
The future is in
software and computing. There are also
serious opportunities for cooperation in this area."
- Developing priority business relationships
Baghdad Amreyev,
Secretary General of the Turkic Council, said in his speech that the priority
is to improve business relations. “We are working to achieve a free trade
regime. I hope we can provide more. From time to time, we hold meetings at the
level of ministers of economy and trade. Half the institutions in each country
are already related to the economy. Our only goal is to help the business
world.”
As a fund, they want to
create an investment bank for the Turkic world, Akreyev said. First of all, we
started with preferential agreements in trade and we will complete it within a
year. Secondly, we will work on a free trade agreement in services and
investments. At the same time, we want the creation of Turkic trading
houses."
After the meeting,
bilateral meetings were held between member state business people.