Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Türkiye, which make up the Organization of Turkic States, and observer members TRNC, Hungary and Turkmenistan have an economic size of approximately 1.5 trillion dollars, a foreign trade volume of 1 trillion dollars and a large population of 185 million. “These figures alone show how we can become a great global power when we come together,” Hisarcıklıoğlu said.

Pointing out that the economic integration between the member countries of the Organization of Turkic States should be strengthened, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Because look, the trade volume between us as Turkic states is only 42 billion dollars. It is not even 10 percent of our total foreign trade. However, the share of trade among European countries is around 70 percent. In other words, they trade together, grow together and get richer together.”

Stating that they strengthen the economic ties between countries, Hisarcıklıoğlu said: “In this context, we attach particular importance to the development of women entrepreneurship. Because the way for countries to prosper in our age is to have more entrepreneurs. Look at today's rich and powerful countries. They achieved this thanks to their entrepreneurs. Because natural resources do not make nations rich and cannot spread prosperity throughout the society. Only entrepreneurs achieve this. They not only earn for themselves but also for their nations.

In the last 15 years, the proportion of women among all entrepreneurs has doubled, rising from 6 percent to 12 percent. We believe that networking is an important factor in developing women entrepreneurship and achieving success in business life. I wish that we can meet again in the good days when we will work shoulder to shoulder without diminishing our hope for a better future.”

Şekib Avdagiç, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of TOBB and President of the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce, stated that as the business world of Türkiye, they are working with the ideal that the 21st century will be the Turkic century and said, “We will achieve the goal of the Turkic century only with the entrepreneur Turkic women. We will make everything that is said to be impossible possible together with our women. For this reason, the “Women Entrepreneurs Committee”, which operates under the auspices of the Union of Turkic Chambers of Commerce and Industry with the participation of Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Hungary and TRNC, has a great duty. We need Turkic women to be pioneers and successful in areas of production and trade outside the traditional sectors. The states of the Turkic provinces need women to regain their former power in the Turkic society in order to increase trade and economic cooperation among themselves and to develop their national economies.”