Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Attending the meeting were TOBB President and Vice President of Eurochambres Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Eurochambres President Christoph Leitl, European Union Delegation to Turkey Vice President Gabriel Munuera Vinals and Deputy Commerce Minister Fatih Metin. The Presidents and Representatives of the Chambers and Commodity Exchanges and the Presidents of the Chambers Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, the Russian Federation, Montenegro, Kosovo, Belarus and Georgia.

- The impact of chambers and exchanges

In his speech, TOBB President and Vice President of Eurochambres M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Commodity Exchanges are very effective institutions in terms of service to the business world.

Stating that the main task of the Chambers and Commodity Exchanges is to facilitate the corporate sector, entrepreneurs, business and investment environment, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “It is their duty to guide companies in a continuously changing local and global business environment. Chambers and Commodity Exchanges are also responsible for representing the interests of their members at local, national and international level. Another task is to contribute to local development activities, as strong opinion leaders, and often to lead. Briefly, Chambers and Commodity Exchanges are operating in many social areas such as local development as well as their duties towards the business world.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that as the Chamber and the Exchange community, they must to serve their members better, represent their members more effectively and be more sensitive to the environment they are in. Hisarcıklıoğlu said that performing all these important tasks is directly related to service capacity.

TOBB President and Vice President of Eurochambres M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that they need to improve their service range, improve service standards and be closer to their members, adding: “We’ve worked with this vision since 2001. Our Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in Turkey are becoming service centers for businesses. In this process, the European Union supported us, our Chambers and Commodity Exchanges with approximately 11.5 million Euros. EUROCHAMBRES, in addition to its own knowledge and experience, helped us to bring the experience of leading chamber systems from EU member countries to our country. On behalf of our business world, I would like to thank EUROCHAMBRES of which I am proud to be the Vice President. In 2001, we started this process with Chamber Development Projects. With projects such as the Turkey-EU Chamber Forum and Turkey-EU Business Dialogue, we continue to support our chamber and the commodity exchanges.”

- Contribution to the EU process

"With this project, besides providing support to the service capacity of our Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, we contribute to Turkey's EU membership process. We enable the business world to be better acquainted.

We integrating chambers and commodity exchanges into dialogue platforms between the EU and Turkey.

I'd like to make it clear. The most effective and increasingly strong platform for dialogue between the EU and Turkey, under the leadership of our chambers and commodity exchanges, is carried out by the business community.

We know that we need more dialogue. Therefore, we see this project as a crucial step to bring the real actors in the Turkey-EU process closer together.”

- Information about the project from Hisarcıklıoğlu

Hisarcıklıoğlu provided information about the project, reporting that, as a part of the Turkey-EU Business Dialogue (TEBD), there would be 20 pairings between Turkey and the EU member states Chambers and Commodity Exchanges. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that Turkish and EU member countries will come together and work together to produce joint projects. “Turkish and EU chambers will become partners. There are various avenues for cooperation in women and young entrepreneurship development, environment, product development and customs union.

To this end, we planned to have more than 100 events between September 2018 and June 2020. Turkish Chambers and exchanges, together with their partners in the EU, will develop and implement joint projects in these areas.”

Stating that all this will add momentum to local development in provinces and districts, TOBB President and Eurochambres Vice President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Local entrepreneurs will be able to open up to Europe. As a result, Turkey will benefit, Europe will benefit; we will work together and win together. We believe that this win-win process, which we started as the business community, will be reflected in bilateral relations. We hope that this project will contribute to our country's business world, the service capacity of our chambers and commodity exchanges and the EU-Turkey dialogue.”

After the speeches, a memorandum of understanding was signed between TOBB and Eurochambres.

- President of Eurochambres Christoph Leitl

In his speech, Eurochambres President Christoph Leitl also thanked Hisarcıklıoğlu for his efforts. Leitl said that companies understand the problems of the companies, always pointing at different phases of companies, he said, “Enterprising is to take the right steps in critical situations.”

Emphasizing that they believe in performance and power of Turkey’s economy, Eurochambres President Christoph Leitl stated that the trade between the EU and Turkey has increased to 150 billion USD, pointing out this shows mutual faith of the two sides. Leitl reported that 20,000 European companies have investments and trade in Turkey. Stating that the Customs Union agreement might be updated, Leitl stressed Turkish and EU institutions’ need cooperate.

Christoph Leitl touched upon the need for dialogue and future perspectives, and stated that the business world comes before politics and that chambers are leading institutions. Leitl outlined the focal points of the project as training, innovation and cooperation.