One of Turkey’s top business associations has dubbed 2022 a year of investments, its chairperson said Wednesday, pledging efforts and projects that will rev up production and employment in the coming period.
"Important organizations will be held throughout the year that will provide added-value to the Turkish economy, accelerate the employment process, increase the volume of production and investment, and guide the development of domestic and national projects," said Mahmut Asmalı, the newly elected chairperson of Independent Industrialists and Businesspersons Association (MÜSIAD).
The association has recently kick-started an initiative titled "Anatolian Production and Investment Move," which Asmalı says is aimed at expanding export-oriented investment and production across the region.
The initiative, he noted, is among the top steps that will contribute to the country’s economy and raise the welfare level of households within the value chains that have been built.
"We trust more than ever the Anatolian manufacturers who are open to competition and who have managed to enter global markets," Asmalı told reporters at a meeting in Istanbul.
Around $1.85 billion investment
Asmalı said the first stage of the initiative will consist of an investment of around TL 25 billion (around $1.85 billion) to be made at 40 locations in more than 20 provinces in the region, where he said they look to add dynamism to the export-oriented production mechanism.
"In this context, in the first stage, we are implementing investment projects of TL 7.6 billion in Samsun, approximately TL 4 billion in Adana, TL 1.6 billion in Izmir and TL 660 million in Sakarya in the first place," he said.
"We will further expand the scope of this ‘trust movement,’ which has already reached a total of TL 25 billion, within the framework of the Investment Year."
Asmalı said the initiative will also make a serious contribution to the labor market, with the potential to create up to 25,000 additional jobs in total with the first stage investments.
Economic diplomacy
To ramp up commercial diplomacy, the association is also spearing heading another project. Within the scope of the "Anatolian Economic Diplomacy" initiative, the association is inviting ambassadors and foreign mission representatives to Turkey to meet with businesspeople in the region, seeking to create new opportunities in foreign trade.
MÜSIAD last brought together the ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Nigeria with businesspeople in the central provinces of Çorum and Kayseri, respectively.
"We expect the project we have started by inviting foreign mission representatives in our country, especially ambassadors, will make a serious contribution to regional development. This vision is supported by the fact that our entrepreneurs, industrialists and investors in the region are obtaining the chance to have direct contact with regards to foreign trade and to look for new trade opportunities with this practice," Asmalı noted.
MÜSIAD has a total of 169 contact points, including 88 in Turkey and in 74 countries across 81 locations.
To shed light on Turkey’s potential, the association will be holding the MÜSIAD EXPO 2022 trade fair on Nov. 2-5 as well as the second edition of the Turkish-Arab Business Summit on May 27-29.
These events will add value to the country and quicken the process of implementing new investment projections, said Asmalı.
MÜSIAD village in Syria
Among others locations, MÜSIAD will also open a branch in Libya next month and will organize a trip to the Ivory Coast, he noted.
On the social responsibility side, Asmalı stressed they had initiated an aid campaign for Afghanistan in cooperation with the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay).
The association is also planning to set up a permanent "MÜSIAD Village" in Syria, which Asmalı says is planned to consist of approximately 1,000 briquette houses.