President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made significant statements at the TOBB General Assembly.
Key points from President Erdoğan's remarks:
I wish Allah's blessings upon the 80th general assembly of our Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye for the good of our country and business world. I express my gratitude to the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye administration for bringing us together in this pleasant atmosphere. Here, there are patriotic hearts beating for Türkiye. Here, there are entrepreneurial spirits producing and creating employment for Türkiye. Here, there are devoted hearts working for the future of our nation, sweating for it. Here, I have companions who spare no sacrifice in the construction of the Turkish Century. Today, the heart of Türkiye and the Turkish economy beats in this hall. I pray to God for our unity, togetherness, and affection to remain constant. On this occasion, I extend my gratitude to each brother who has supported our country's development, progress, and strengthening under the umbrella of TOBB from its establishment to the present, on behalf of myself, my country, and my nation.
As a politician entrusted with the people's mandate, I have always attached importance to participating in the TOBB General Assemblies, where the pulse of the Turkish economy beats. I have endeavored to benefit from the constructive criticisms expressed here. The contributions of you, my visionary and farsighted brothers who follow the world, have always had a special place in our eyes. We discussed our issues with you. We sought solutions to our problems with common sense. We overcame obstacles shoulder to shoulder. You guided us, stood by us, especially in difficult times. Especially in recent times, the capacities of our chambers and exchanges have tremendously increased. You have become one of the top 3 chambers in the world in terms of service and production. We have always supported you during this process. We opened the way for you to achieve your goals and dreams. You know, during that time, we didn't just fight against financial difficulties. We mainly fought against ingrained, learned helplessness. They tried very hard to break the arms and legs of the project from its infancy. They tried every means to discredit the project by criticizing everything from its factory to its design. Just as they are saying things about our national warplane KAAN today, slandering our unmanned aerial vehicles and their producers, whoever intervenes to sabotage the moves that will elevate Türkiye to a higher level in the economy, we witnessed all of them and more during the electric vehicle manufacturing process. But we didn't pay attention to any of them. If others are doing it, we asked why shouldn't we? If others can produce, we asked why shouldn't we? With your efforts, we took our place in electric vehicle technology ahead of many countries in the world. From now on, we will continue to work together with you in our country's other projects, walk together. We met with our TOBB members immediately after last year's May 28 elections and had a conversation. We are holding today's general assembly after the local elections of March 31. Three consecutive elections within the last year have exhausted our business world greatly. The year 2023 was a very challenging year for the Turkish economy. Unfortunately, our country could not get rid of the election atmosphere. Again, during this period, conflicts directly affecting our country broke out in our region, starting with the Gaza crisis. It is a fact that even the election agenda alone slows down bureaucracy, investments, and the future plans of our business world. With the March 31 elections behind us, we are now entering a 4-year period without elections. From now on, we will be able to focus more on our real issues, allocate more time and resources to the real agenda of our nation. As you know, the global economy has been going through turbulent waters for the last 5-6 years. You also know that the climate of uncertainty that started long before the pandemic intensified with the Russia-Ukraine war and other regional conflicts.
Inflation, which has reached the peaks of the last 50-60 years worldwide despite all efforts, continues to be a concern for economies. The central banks of America and Europe still cannot give a clear date for when the fire of inflation will subside. Unfortunately, as Türkiye, we are also adversely affected by the general course of the global economy and the crises in our region. Of course, we are a country that has experienced the disaster of the century, which cost our economy $104 billion on February 6. While more than 53,000 of our people lost their lives in the earthquakes on February 6, 850,000 independent sections, including 115,000 stores, became unusable. The presidents of chambers and exchanges from the earthquake-stricken provinces know very well how massive a destruction we faced. These friends are also the closest witnesses to our efforts to recover the earthquake-stricken provinces.
