Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

In his speech here, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Last year, our national income broke a record by reaching 1.3 trillion dollars. Our share of global exports of goods and services rose to 1.08 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, reaching the highest levels in history.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu, “Türkiye’s Investment Horizon: Opportunities and Future Vision” special session.

Stating that people from the global business community participated in the session, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We have recently experienced a lot of turmoil inside and outside, but we did not let all this darken our horizon. In this first quarter of the 21^st century, except for only 2 years, that is, except for 2 years in the last 25 years, there is a Türkiye whose economy has grown continuously.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said:

“Last year, our national income broke a record by reaching 1.3 trillion dollars. Our share of global exports of goods and services rose to 1.08 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, reaching the highest levels in history. Within a 4-hour flight range of Türkiye, there is a population of 1.3 billion, a national income of 28 trillion dollars and an import volume of 9 trillion dollars. In all these geographies, Türkiye has the best equipped and experienced businesspeople to do joint business and investment, and to enter the markets of all these countries together. The US and Europe’s search for alternative supply centers to China is also an important opportunity for our country. In particular, our geographical proximity to Europe and our ability to adapt quickly to changing conditions offer us advantages in meeting the demands from there. Türkiye is one of the world’s leading countries in terms of the number of products it can produce competitively and market diversity. It also has the highest product and market diversity in its region.” 

- “We are the main supplier of Europe in many sectors”

Sharing some export figures, Hisarcıklıoğlu continued as follows:

“The export of high-tech products in our manufacturing industry was 6 billion dollars 5 years ago, and last year it reached 10 billion dollars. Our production capability is extremely diverse. We are Europe’s main supplier in many sectors such as automotive, white goods, construction materials, iron and steel, ready-to-wear clothing, and we are Europe’s No. 1 supplier in many other sectors. This is Türkiye’s richness in product and market diversity, which is visible in foreign trade data. It is an indicator of the capacity to do business that we have built in these lands. In fact, it is an indicator of a very important power of Turkish entrepreneurship. It is a sign of success not only in production but also in marketing capability. It is clear that there has been an expanding pool of talent in our country in the last 30 years. The product and market diversity of the Turkish economy is Türkiye’s strong point. Türkiye is the country that competitively sells the largest number of products to the largest number of markets. It is also useful not to miss where our strengths bring the opportunity to focus.”

Stating that the private sector has gone beyond being a local actor, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Türkiye is the leading country with production and export capacity in the wide geography between Italy and China, including Russia and Israel. 

- “We should be able to show our growth story to the whole world”

Stating that Türkiye is the country with the largest production power in the regional geography, Hisarcıklıoğlu said:

“Our entrepreneurs, who learned to export by selling goods to brokers, are now established in foreign markets themselves. The Turkish private sector’s investments abroad have reached 60 billion dollars in 130 countries. We have investments, constructions, machinery parks and partnerships in all of our neighboring geography. Of the world’s 250 largest international contracting companies, 42 are from Türkiye and we are the second in the world in this context. In tourism, we are among the top 5 destinations in the world in terms of the number of tourist arrivals. We are ranked seventh in terms of revenue, and it is up to us to improve and grow these figures. We must continue with structural reforms to increase our competitiveness and show our growth story to the whole world.”

Stating that prioritizing green and digital transformation is important in terms of increasing global competitiveness, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “When we consider global developments and the possibility of growing trade wars, we are going through a highly turbulent process together, but we believe that we will overcome them. For 15 years, we have an economy that has been growing uninterruptedly. Imagine what Türkiye has been through politically and economically for 15 years. Despite those periods, Türkiye has been growing uninterruptedly for 15 years. We have a resilient and dynamic economy, perhaps the greatest success of the private sector is its flexibility. We find the determined stance of the economy management, its emphasis on stability and its commitment to rational policies promising for the future. As stated in the Medium Term Program, we consider it very important to support production, employment and export-led growth, to continue reforms to improve the business and investment environment, and to prioritize green and digital transformation in order to increase our global competitiveness.”

- Expressed thanks on social media account

Hisarcıklıoğlu shared on his social media account after the Forum: “At the Palandöken Economic Forum, we successfully completed our special session titled “Türkiye’s Investment Horizon: Opportunities and Future Vision” at the Palandöken Economic Forum. With our esteemed guests from the USA, Kazakhstan, TRNC, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan, we discussed the investment opportunities offered by Türkiye, regional cooperation and our common goals for the future. I would like to thank Myron Brilliant, Assan Zhakishev, Turgay Deniz, Umid Hoji, Kurrat Ul-Ain and Nasimjon Anvarov for their valuable contributions and sharing.”