Speakers at the Istanbul Finance Summit (IFS) agreed that Turkey should invest more in technology to set off a transformation.
"The summit mainly addressed technology. Our focus was transformation which is also the main theme of Turkey’s New Economic Program [NEP], announced on Sept. 30," summit Vice President Dilek Koçak Tozlu said.
"Besides finance, speakers at the IFS discussed several issues about technology and transformation," she added.
Turkey’s NEP is committed to supporting research and development (R&D), innovation and technological transformation. The country’s "İVME" financing package, which was unveiled last May, also provides incentives to companies producing technology.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) Tozlu praised Turkey's adaptation to the transformation in finance.
On the number of participants at the forum, she said the summit had "strong" participation. "Generally the second day of forums sees less number of attendees. But the crowd was the same on the second day at IFS’19," she added.
10,000 PARTICIPANTS IN 10 YEARS
IFS deputy chairman, Furkan Ünal said nearly 1,000 participants from 10 countries attended this year’s event.
"IFS has hosted more than 10,000 people from 100 countries and more than 400 speakers have taken part since the event was launched in 2010," said Ünal. "It has become a brand of Istanbul, Turkey," he added.
Marking the 10th year of the event, Ünal said officials, economists, businesspeople and academics gathered under the theme of "Financial Metamorphosis and Back to the Future."
"We discussed the change of the global economy and financial sectors, including financial technologies, borders, political situations and different financial instruments that we are going to use soon," said Ünal.
He underlined the importance of understanding "the change" in order to take action and implement structures. "For instance, there is a Netflix generation coming and companies should be aware of it and keep up with this change, otherwise they will lose their position," he said.
The Istanbul Finance Summit was held on Oct. 9-10 with a series of speeches delivered by officials, economists, businesspeople, bankers and academics.
The event this year hosted professionals from the finance sector as well as the defense, energy and construction sectors.
Head of Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) Simone Kaslowski, President of the International Investors Association (YASED) Ayşem Sargın, Member of Turkish Presidency’s Economic Policies Board Hakan Yurdakul, Deputy Chairman of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) Tamer Kıran, Chairman of Turkish Capital Markets Association Alp Keler, and the CEOs of private lenders, Citibank, Finansbank and Denizbank as well as the CFOs of prominent Turkish companies were among the speakers.
Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez also attended the event via video conference on the first day of the forum.
Last year, the IFS hosted nearly 800 participants and 41 speakers from 23 countries.