02.10.2025 İstanbul

M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), attended the 16th Turkish-Arab Economic Forum (TAF) held in İstanbul with the participation of Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek.

In his speech, Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that they had come together at a critical time but at the right moment, saying that the world was going through a ring of fire.

Emphasizing that Israel’s aggressive policies threatened peace and stability in the region, Hisarcıklıoğlu also stated that they were following the normalization process in Syria with great satisfaction.

Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Of course, the support and aid that Arab countries will provide to Syria will also boost economic development efforts here. We are ancient and deeply rooted nations in this region. According to our faith, we must see each other as brothers. We must act in accordance with the advice that ‘there is grace and prosperity in unity, and anguish in dissent’ and we must be able to act together. In this context, we are pleased with the development of our commercial relations with Arab countries in recent years. However, we also believe that we have the potential to do much better. We see that the volume of trade and investment between us remains below the required level.”

Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that the way to make Türkiye and the Arab world more prosperous is to come together and stand united.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the way to achieve this is to increase trade, and continued: “The most concrete example is right here beside us. European countries, which had been enemies for centuries, became wealthy together by increasing trade with each other. EU countries conduct 70 percent of their foreign trade with each other. The first condition for establishing such economic cooperation is to create the necessary legal framework. In line with this vision, we established an Arbitration Center in İstanbul with the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Development. We must promote this to the business communities in our countries and encourage them to use it. To increase trade, we must also facilitate border crossings. After all, businesspeople trade and invest in the countries they can reach most easily. We have carried out successful work in this regard in Türkiye.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they aim to modernize land customs gates in different regions, particularly in 57 Islamic countries. He emphasized that the Preferential Trade Agreement launched within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for the free movement of goods is a crucial step and that its scope should be further expanded.

Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We must bring together the capital accumulation of Arab countries with the production experience of the Turkish private sector in industry, tourism, and agriculture. We can also make joint investments in Arab countries.”