10.11.2022 Ankara
Kocaeli Chamber of Industry Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu and Assembly Speaker Hasan Tahsin Tuğrul visited the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu at his office with their delegation.
At the reception, TOBB
President Hisarcıklıoğlu wished success for new term efforts and conveyed his
good wishes.
Ayhan Zeytinoğlu, in
his statement after the visit, gave the following views: “Our elections started
on the 3rd of November and ended on the 10th. In fact,
although we have little post-pandemic working process, we have made a very
democratic and beautiful election at a certain level. First, we elected our
council members. We then elected both the administration and our delegates. Due
to the increase in the minimum wage, the number of our delegates decreased from
16 to 14. Despite this, we had a good election. There has been a change of
close to 30 percent in our council members. Some of our friends asked
forgiveness for their absence. They encouraged us to elect new friends. We had
a very positive, level-headed choice. This is my fourth term. I am really proud
to be in this community.
Thanks to our
President, he hosted us in his office today. Today, apart from our 14
delegates, our board members and 23 friends visited them. We gave information
about our assembly. We explained our election process. As you know, Kocaeli is
one of the regions where Turkey's most important manufacturing sector is
located. It is a province which hosts 13 percent of the manufacturing industry
in Türkiye and makes 18-19 percent of exports. I presented our council members
to him. We have also increased the number of women council members from 3 to 6.
He told us that they wanted to see our female friends in the board of directors
and rightly so.I
hope that in the coming terms, we or our friends who will come after us will
succeed in this. Our president told us how democratic TOBB is and how
effectively and democratically the elections were held. Then he told our
council members that I had worked closely with him during the pandemic. He very
graciously praised us a little too much. Then he talked about the work they had
done on the problems in the country. We left having been greatly impressed.
I hope that together
with our President, we will continue with our President for another 4 years,
supporting him with 14 of my friends. In our administration, there is
extraordinary love and respect for our President. I congratulate him here for
deserving this very much.”