Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The Turk-Arab Economic Forum took place in Istanbul with the participation of TOBB and DEİK President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu along with Minister of Finance Mehmet Şimşek, President of the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries (GUCCIAAC) Adnan Kassar, Al-İktissad Wal-Aamal Group CEO Raouf Abou Zaki and Arab Countries Ambassador Mohammed Abdul Fattah Al Naciri.

Re-iterating the importance of stability Hisarcıklıoğlu went on to say, “As businessmen we suffer the most from this environment of instability. These political instabilities should not be allowed to halt economic development. We as businessmen not only prefer stability but also help to ensure it. The more we embrace each other the region will be that much more stable in all aspects. The man with a burden, the working man, will not instigate needless fights. It is for this reason that our first and foremost goal is to nurture and develop the private sector in the region.”

Focus on 5 sectors and pairing of chambers

To further strengthen the partnership of the Arab Union of Chambers and The Union of Chambers of Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) made the decision to meet yearly and focus on 5 sectors; Transportation-logistics; banking; construction, tourism and health care, to develop tangible projects. In addition a total of 44 chambers from Turkey will claim 2 chambers from each of the 22 Arab countries as “fraternal chambers” and start working closely with them. Lastly Turkey’s foremost university TOBB ETU will grant scholarship to 22 students, one from each of the 22 Arab countries.”

“This is only the beginning”

“Our bilateral trade volume only increased to $33.4 Billion in 2010, this is nowhere near enough.” Hisarcıklıoğlu stated the percentage of bilateral trade volume should increase from 4.2% to 20%. “We can make it all possible through hard work and confidence. Our relation is not only limited to trade either, there have been significant increases in tourism and construction volume in the recent years.”

“The private sector stands ready to do its part”

For over 5 years we have been working to bring our organized industry experience to our Palestinian brothers with the “Industry for Peace” Project. With the support of the President of the Republic and Prime Minister we have been constructing an organized industry area to provide factories which bring hope and prosperity to Palestinian brothers. As the most advanced private sector of the region we stand ready to do our part for the betterment of all and I invite all my brothers to embrace via this conviction.”

“As we cannot ensure prosperity for the people without production and trade, as petroleum trade does not bring riches to the lower echelons, we must work to enable our people to prosper via trade and production lest we fail as a whole in this geography.
We as Turkish businessmen are open to collaboration and stand firm behind the principle of working together. It is our wish to see a region free of its internal struggles, a region lead by strong legitimate governments, a region with an economy diversified beyond oil trade, a region with a higher standard of living and an effective player in the global order.

We wish to nurture partnerships in all sectors and in all levels with the principle of maximum collaboration with the Arab world.
Let us make our dreams into goals and our goals into reality… As we succeed we will see that we are even stronger than we had hoped to be.”
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