Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Attending the meeting were EUROCHAMBRES President Alessandro Barberis (Italy) and the Croatian Chamber of Economy President Nadan Vidosevic as well as the presidents of the Chambers of Commerce  and Industry of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Israel and the representatives of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Austria, Belarus, Montenegro, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

A morning session on “EU Member Croatia” was held. Attending the session, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Cacic, providing information on the Croatian economy and the investment opportunities in the fields of energy land and rail transportation infrastructure and tourism and the tenders available. He urged attendees to take advantage of the investment opportunities in his country.

In his speech, Cacic said that Turkey, the Russian Federation, Serbia and the European Union are important economic powers and stated that they wish to benefit from the experiences of Turkey in many fields, chiefly in tourism, and that he would be visiting Turkey at the end of September to this end.

- Croatian is a successful example

TOBB President and EUROCHAMBRES Vice President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that Croatia will become a member of the EU as of the July of 2013, is a successful example for the other candidate and potential candidates of the region and that these countries should try to benefit from the experiences of Croatia. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that in addition to the conviction of the Croatian politicians and the EU accession process, the support of the Croatian people for the reforms was significant.

Issuing a call to the leaders of the EU, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “It is important that EU act as a source of inspiration for the candidate and potential candidate countries as a part of its neighborhood policy. EU citizens long for the founding leaders of the EU who furthered integration like Monnet, Schuman, Adenauer and Spinelli.”

Also touching on the matter of the crisis in Europe, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “EU is turning excessively inwards due to the economic crisis it is undergoing. The expansion process should continue. New members will strengthen the EU.”

Stating that the business world institutions of the region undergoing transformation need to force their governments to enact reforms and to encourage the opposition and all parts of society to support the reform process, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Governments need to focus firstly on corruption, education, health and retirement systems. As a chambers system, we must encourage and support governments who wish to enact reforms.”

- Issues to be concentrated on

Drawing attention to the economic, political and social transformation Turkey has condensed into the last 30 years, Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that despite the crisis, Turkey has achieved a record in growth, exports and employment in 2010 and 2011. Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Economic and political reforms are necessary for the prosperity of the people. The success of reforms requires general public support and adoption. EU needs to continue being a source of inspiration for reforms. It must keep its gates open to new members. The EU integration is not yet complete. As representatives of the business world, we must encourage relations between countries in the EU and our own regions. The physical and legislative infrastructure of this issue must be monitored.”
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