Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, along with TOBB Board Vice Presidents İbrahim Çağlar and Ender Yorgancılar attended the B20 China Kick-Off Meeting as well conducting various meetings in China.

Speaking at the opening session attended by Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Wang Yang as guest of honor, Hisarcıklıoğlu expressed his opinion that China’s term will be very productive, stating that an economically challenging period has reigned since 2008. Stating that the global economy is trying to catch up to digital economy Hisarcıklıoğlu said:

“We are faced with many difficult problems including unemployment. Refugee issues, low growth rates and the slowing down of developing economies’ development are arrayed against us. These issues are causing the business world to take on a wait and see approach before investing, causing fluctuations in trade. We can’t solve all of these problems by ourselves; we must cooperate. B20 is the most suitable platform to solve these in cooperation. In order to have the B20 be effective, we must integrate international standard mechanisms into the B20 process as well.”

- Continued support for SMEs is gratifying

Established in an initiative by B20 Turkey, the continuation of the SMEs and Entrepreneurship Taskforce as well as the World SME Forum (WSF) acting as SMEs and Entrepreneurship Taskforce’s international partner is quite gratifying, said Hisarcıklıoğlu and went on, “G20 China has a lot on its shoulders with its focus on innovation and entrepreneurship while encouraging the development of global infrastructures.”

Attending the opening session were Hisarcıklıoğlu and Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Wang Yang as well as B20 Chinese Chair Jiang Zengwei, G20 China Sherpa and Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Li Baodong, B20 China Sherpa Yu Ping, Zhejiang District Governor Liang Liming, RSPP and B20 Russia Chair Alexander Shokhin and International Chamber of Commerce Chair Harold McGraw.

- Visit to the center of e-commerce in China

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, along with the delegation accompanying on his China visit visited the Qiantang e-Commerce Intelligence Park established for the promotion of e-commerce. The park in Hangzhou - Zhejiang Province facilitates conditions for companies to take part in e-commerce.

- Turkey-Zhejiang Commerce and Investment Symposium

Afterwards, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the Turkey-Zhejiang Commerce and Investment Symposium hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Attending the symposium were representatives from AliBaba, Geely Auto, Zhejiang Tourism Group and Zhejiang Transportation, Engineering and Construction Company.