Türkiye Odalar ve Borsalar Birliği

Hosted by the İzmir Chamber of Commerce President Mahmut Özgener, Aegean Region Industry Chamber President Ender Yorgancılar and İzmir Commodity Exchange President Işınsu Kestelli, the business community of İzmir found opportunity to relay their problems and troubles to the Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak first-hand. Developments in the economy were discussed at the meeting attended by TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu and Minister Albayrak.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu started his speech by congratulating the Presidents of the İzmir Chamber of Commerce, Aegean Region Chamber of Commerce and Izmir Commodity Exchange, who organized the consultation meeting in cooperation. Pointing out that İzmir is a city that has written many success stories, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “A small port town in the beginning, from the 18^th century onwards, İzmir became one of the largest port cities in Europe. Today, İzmir, with its 8 universities, 13 OIZs, 2 free zones, 3 technology development zones and 4 international container ports, is the star of both our country and the Mediterranean Sea. By itself, it generates 6% of national income, 7% of industrial production and exports as well as 12% of tax revenue for our country. I am proud of our entrepreneurial brothers of İzmir, who are the authors of all these successes.”

- New breakthrough period

Hisarcıklıoğlu, urging İzmir business community to keep up the pace of business, to continue the pace and to continue developing İzmir, thanked Nihat Zeybekçi and Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak in regards to their role in addressing the troubles of the business community, the TOBB President said, “It is of the utmost importance that the Minister is here with us, which shows us the importance afforded by him to İzmir and our community. We relayed the issues on İzmir’s agenda at the TOBB Turkey Economy Summit attended by President Erdoğan and various Ministers on January21^st. President Yorgancılar, representing the Aegean Region, presented your demands at the summit.

We have begun to see positive developments regarding the issues we conveyed to our government. Under the leadership of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, many actions have been implemented which have recently relieved our private sector and reduced our burdens. Today, he wanted to listen to your problems, opinions and suggestions in person. He came here with his team. Thanks to his vision and dynamism, I believe that a new period of breakthrough in the economy will begin.”

- Turkish business world will overcome this bump

M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating that the Turkish business world, despite all the obstacles they faced, have proved what they are capable of many times over in the past, said, “With the cooperation and consultation between the private sector and public sector, we have overcome many difficulties. At the foundation of all the gains Turkey has achieved in recent years, lies confidence and stability.

In the coming period, we know that we will overcome all the troubles by maintaining confidence and stability. As Turkey's real sector, we will continue to work and produce more to make our country and our nation more prosperous. We will overcome this bump in the road and continue on our way.”

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that the dialogue meeting held in Izmir together with the Turkey Banks Union in the recent weeks was very productive and that many issues were resolved thanks to the bilateral talks.

- Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak

Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, in his address, reported that Turkey's current account deficit could fall below 20 billion USD and a rapid transition to a period of current account surplus transition is fast approaching, noting that relief in the economy would be felt strongly beginning in April.

Starting his speech with the words of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at the İzmir Economic Congress held on February 17^th, 96 years ago, Minister Albayrak stated that Atatürk's words then shed light on today.

Emphasizing that they kept a very strong stance in order to minimize the effects of financial fluctuations experienced since August of last year, Albayrak went on:

“We have embarked on a historical fight to preserve the peace and prosperity of this great nation. We have left behind this turbulence in a fight none could not predict even through strong coordination of all our institutions in every field of economy. We are confident that economic troubles will be overcome within the program period, perhaps even earlier.

We have seen this as an opportunity for rebalancing. With a disciplined and change-oriented motivation, we can clearly see that at the end of 2021, economic activity will be transformed into a structure with higher added value production in all sectors.”

- Improvements in all indicators

Stating that the Turkish economy has entered a period of rebalancing with no quarter given, despite many financial attacks, in regards to fiscal discipline and low debt rates, Albayrak said:

“Three important issues have been brought up since July-August. Fiscal discipline, combating inflation and the current account balance. In the last 6 months, we have shown great resilience in these fields which were regarded as points of fragility for Turkey. The point we’ve reached today, has seen us taking decisive steps to never be vulnerable against these factors ever again. We are observing a much earlier recovery and regaining of balance. These are the latest current figures, As of the end of January, the 12-month current account balance figures show that current account deficit will fall below 20 billion USD. Turkey is rapidly heading towards a transition to a state of current account surplus.”

Albayrak stated that the positive effects of the financial markets were observed in a short period of time as a result of measures taken in time and with determination and that all indicators showed improvement compared to August.

- Commodity-Exchange Presidents relayed their demands

İzmir Commodity Exchange (ITB) President Işınsu Kestelli also pointed out that Turkey has achieved exemplary success in the last 16 years.

Reporting that, in the last 16 years, Turkey has tripled its economic size and increased the per capita income to 10,000 USD, Kestelli said, “The leadership of political stability has played a big role in this achievement. In these 16 years we have been continually tested, just as we were tested constantly in the last century. I wholeheartedly say that we have the power and potential to overcome these challenges.”

Aegean Region Chamber of Industry (EBSO) President Ender Yorgancılar said that production is a matter of heart.

Stating that it is necessary to convince the EU that Turkey is the only alternative to the UK in regards to Brexit, Yorgancılar stated that they appreciate the efforts for the modernization of the customs union agreement.

İzmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO) President Mahmut Özgener pointed out that the government took appropriate and timely measures against foreign exchange fluctuations in August.

İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayoral Candidate Nihat Zeybekci urged the representatives of the chamber and the commodity exchanges to be on the side of İzmir.