Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

“Together we can write new global success stories'' said Mr. Hisarcıklıoğlu, and continued, ''As the private sector, we are aware of our strengths and weaknesses. We have the gift of being entrepreneurs. Turkey’s wealth doesn’t depend on underground treasures, rather earned through the people living in the country. That’s why we could manage to be the largest economy of the region, without the oil and natural gas”.

Mr. Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Turkish entrepreneurs without knowing the language, not knowing the way, can reach any market throughout the world and can easily adapt themselves quickly to new conditions.

-PRIME MINISTER RECEP TAYYİP ERDOĞAN

H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mentioned the extreme importance of accomplishing a meeting with Commercial Counselors, which is similar to the ones that have been organized with ambassadors before. Prime Minister Erdoğan said, ''After all, our Commercial Counselors are working very hard in the countries in which they are settled. They have significant contribution to Turkey’s economy as well as their contribution to the promotion of Turkey. Our Commercial Counselors have a significant contribution for both exports reaching record levels and achieving all records in international direct investment”.

Likewise, the Prime Minister told that Commercial Counselors have a significant contribution in the rise of Turkey's construction services to the second place in the world after China, the increase in tourism revenues, the spread of foreign investment and trade to the world's most remote countries and regions. Prime Minister Erdoğan said, ''You know, today two important topics represent the difference. One of these is 'soft power' and the other one is 'hard power. Soft power is ahead of hard power now. It is much more important. We’re faced with such a situation. Your actions in your region and around the world are no longer measured with your army, weapons, tanks or guns; it is rather measured through your economic, diplomatic and cultural strengths. We, as Turkey, in the last 8.5 years, have placed emphasis on this 'soft power'. With a unique accumulation inspired from our history, culture and civilization, we exhibit intense struggle to effect and contribute to the solution of each equation in the regional and global scale. I emphasize all the time, we as Turkey, do not have eyes on any country's sovereignty at all. We, in our region, do not go after to show off especially to grab a leading role in the world. We can’t be in the interest of taking advantage of all the blood, tears, and oppression. I have expressed this regarding Libya issue. When we look at the countries in our region, what we see is people and their hearts, not the things underground. The steps we take is for them. Otherwise, we could easily imitate what some western countries do. We could aim to reach more positive values through these actions. But we are not in this race, we won’t be, we can’t''.

Prime Minister told that foreign trade was very successful as well as Turkish businessmen who are demonstrating a performance which is very much appreciated and continued, ''Today, in almost every plane which takes off from Istanbul, London, Frankfurt airport and going to far countries, you can find a Turkish businessman carrying his luggage, product samples and his presentations with him. Turkish businessmen are going to the countries to where no one has gone and doing job interviews in a very warm atmosphere. Likewise me, Vice Presidents, Ministers, MPs are traveling between countries to increase investment and trade for almost 8.5 years. Hand in hand with each institution and each businessman, we are very excited to extend our arms and hug the whole world. With no doubt, this enthusiasm and mobility of ours, also affected Commercial Counselors and they feel this excitement in person and on-site. As you know, as the Government of Turkey, we want to place the country in a different position than today with a vision of Turkey in 2023. We have put some targets and declared them. In the meantime, we outline which steps we will take in the coming months to achieve our goals and put these in a time schedule. Have put the goals outlined in the months to now to achieve our goals, we put out in the process schedule. Since 2002 to this date, in 8 years, Turkey has grown three-fold. Its national income of $ 230 billion dollars is raised to $ 736 billion. We aim to reach 2 trillion dollars in national income by rising Turkey’s economy 3 times bigger than now in the next 12 years. In the same way, we’ll increase per capita national income 2.5 times higher, by taking the population increase into consideration, to 25 thousand dollars in the next 12 years.''

Erdoğan, by pointing out that these goals are important in the foreign trade continued and said, ''we have increased our exports from $ 36 billion dollars, more than three times until the end of 2008, increasing approximately 4-fold to $ 132 billion. We’ve definitely raised the bar. Now we have 114 billion dollars does not mean that we will stay here. This is a temporary situation. I hope this year; we’ll reach 132 again and even exceed it. This of course will only be possible with common belief and cooperation. Within the next 12 years, by a 4-fold increase, exports will raise to 500 billion dollars. Turkish Exporters Assembly, in coordination with the Exporters Association, revealed the projection that our goal will be achieved.

Actors in the matter, see that this is not impossible, to accomplish this, they already working for reaching 500 billion dollars. I also congratulate all my friends at this point, I congratulate you.''

-MINISTER OF STATE ZAFER ÇAĞLAYAN

Minister of State in his speech told that when he first took up the position, there were a total of 115 Commercial Counselors. Then with the support of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for first time in the history of the Republic, this number was raised to 250. Minister Çağlayan told that in the meantime, there are 187 Commercial Counselors in 135 central offices in 89 countries. He said, ''God willing, until the end of this year, the number will be raised to 205”.

Çağlayan stated that $ 500 billion dollars export target can’t be reached by only these appointments and continued “In coordination with especially TOBB, TIM, TUSIAD, MUSIAD, INTES, TUSKON, ASKON and all the other organizations and bureaucrats we’ll have significant efforts prior to the point of capturing our $ 500 billion export target before 2023”.

Çağlayan stated that the appointments of Commercial Counselors will play an important role at export figures as well as attracting the foreign investors to Turkey. Çağlayan said, ''our country is developed economically every day. Turkey actually solved all the problems with the means of two words. One of them is stability, the other one is trust. More than 6 times of the total direct investment to our country in the history of the Republic has come in the last 7,5 years. During this period, 70 percent of the 94 billion dollars of foreign direct investment came from Europe is the clearest indication of where Turkey is at the world economy and especially in this area. In 2008, our export raised from $ 36 billion dollars to $ 132 billion was an important milestone in the history of the Republic.''

As of January 1 to April 24, indicating that export figure is 41 billion dollars, Çağlayan said, '' the performance of our exports, given the developments on a monthly basis will exceed $ 132 billion by the end of the year and definitely will become a new milestone''.

-MEHMET BÜYÜKEKŞİ, PRESIDENT OF TURKISH EXPORTERS ASSEMBLY (TIM)

Mehmet Büyükekşi, President of Turkish Exporters Assembly mentioned commercial counselor that Turkey has developed and changed as a center of production and stability so in this frame work the given importance and expectation to foreign trade became bigger.

Büyükekşi said that export has become Turkey’s production engine which provides exporter to expand new markets.

-ÖMER CİHAD VARDAN, PRESIDENT OF INDEPENDENT INDUSTRIALISTS AND BUSINESSMEN'S ASSOCIATION (MUSIAD)

MUSIAD President Ömer Cihad Vardan expressed that export target set for the year 2023 for Turkey was an ambitious and difficult goal, but it was possible to achieve this goal in a planned operation and strategy. Vardan remarked that a stable political structure had an important role in achieving this goal.

Vardan initiated that the most important pillar of export-oriented growth strategy was the Commercial Counselors, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Turkish business world was a great potential to be used for achieving the goals.
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