Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board Member Davut Çetin said that the Turkish Sector Councils worked very well, that 93 Council meetings were held in 2019, that 161 Assembly meetings were held in 2020 due to the difficulties in the sectors with the pandemic and due to the meetings by video conference, that the results of TOBB's Council meetings were also very important, that there were serious returns from the Councils, and that public representatives received very important support for following the Council meetings.

Council President Cengiz Eroldu thanked TOBB management, noted that the decisions taken by both the Automotive Industry Council and others were followed up by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, and that in 2020, after the automotive industry and the public administration made quick decisions, it closed the year 2020 in a good way compared to other sectors.

Eroldu said that global automotive production contracted by 16 percent and the global car market by 14 percent in 2020, while car production in our country decreased by 11 percent, the market recorded 62 percent growth, these figures are an indication that both public administration and industry have successfully managed the extraordinary conditions experienced in 2020, and they have achieved better figures than world automotive production when both production and sales are looked at.

Eroldu said that during the most critical period of the pandemic, there were equipment-making activities aimed at protecting health workers, In this way, they also contributed to the fight against the pandemic as the automotive industry, continued to contribute positively to the balance of foreign trade in these challenging conditions when the main industrial companies were looked at in 2020, did not take a break from investments as an automotive industry, and even new investment decisions were taken in 2020, and although the ongoing investments were the pandemic environment, many brands continued to invest unabated, maintained employment and even provided an employment increase of 7 percent. Eroldu thanked TOBB management once again, stating that the strengthened cooperation between the private sector and public administration was behind this success, and that these consultation environments provided by TOBB in 2020 also contributed greatly to the management of the process. "We are actually hopeful that positive developments regarding the vaccine and the start of vaccination have started, but uncertainty remains. However, we think that in 2021 we will replace the losses we experienced in 2020 in production and exports, we want to reset ourselves and manage this year 2021 successfully."

Following the opening speeches, Tuğba Vural, responsible for the Automotive Industry Council, made a detailed presentation including all activities of 2020, including the issues followed by TOBB and the meeting agendas of the Council, the decisions taken in the meetings, the initiatives made according to the decisions, the issues that the Council gave its opinion on throughout the year and the meetings it participated in.

Council Vice President Özlem Güçlüer shared the automotive industry's figures for 2020 and "Difficulties in Implementing the Transfer of Personal Data Abroad".  During the meeting, which also discussed the Dumping Investigation into EU and South Korean Mourning Steel Products by the Ministry of Commerce, Berat Demirci Cörüt, Trade Specialist of the United Kingdom, Non-EU European Countries and FTA General Coordination Agency for International Agreements and the General Directorate of the European Union, gave information regarding the articles of the Turkey-UK FTA Agreement concerning the Automotive Industry.  Finally, at the meeting, developments on the EU Green Agreement were expressed by TOBB.