Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Konya is one of the model cities in Turkey and everybody including executives, politicians, civil society organizations, government and opposition parties are working for the development of Konya. Hisarcıklıoğlu also highlighted the importance of the Beceri’10 Project for acquiring professional skills, while unemployment is one of the most important problems of Turkey.
Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mehmet Ali Şahin asserted in his speech that Konya will be the engine of Turkey in commerce and economy with its high potential. Şahin reminded that trade deficit is one of the handicaps of Turkey and it can be mitigated by increasing and promoting exports. He also emphasized that Turkey is in a development movement that will be achieved with the pioneering of private sector and competitive market, and government’s duty is to solve the problems and to open the way.
Minister of State Zafer Çağlayan emphasized in his speech that Turkey passed an important test with the help of political and economic stability and also the structure which considers private sector while hundreds of banks bankrupted and many countries were close to it in the 2009 global crisis. He noted that Turkey overcame the 2009 crisis with its achievements in 2010 and there was only 29 Billion USD decrease in exports. He reminded that Turkey’s export was only 36 Billion USD in 2002 but it reached to 132 Billion USD by 2008 and today it is 113.7 Billion USD with the efforts of government, private sector and exporters. He also declared the target of Turkey as becoming one of the first 10 economies in the world and having the national income of more than 2 Billion USD by 2023.
President of the Turkish Exporters Union Mehmet Büyükekşi told that the exports of Konya will exceed 1 Billion USD this year after having 884 Million USD exports in 2009. While reminding Konya is the 15th strongest province in exports, Büyükekşi emphasized that Konya is exporting to 168 countries, mainly to Europe and Middle East and declared the export target of Turkey as 500 Billion USD by 2023.
Following the speeches, tax record holder firms were given their awards.
