After the Ordinary General Assemblies of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK), the new presidents were announced. In the general assembly where presidential elections were held in 135 of 151 business councils, 66 business council presidents were re-elected, while the presidents changed in 69 councils. 46 DEİK members became business council presidents for the first time. The number of female presidents decreased by 3 compared to the previous period and decreased to 11. 15 names who left their country councils were elected as chairmen of another country’s business council. In the new term, Murat Ozyegin moved from the Singapore Business Council to the US Business Council and Mehmet Ali Yalcindag moved from the US Business Council to the Germany Business Council. At the meeting, DEİK 5th Commercial Diplomacy Awards, where business councils were crowned with 12 awards in 6 categories, also found their owners.
“We hope to see a more vibrant economic picture and a more vibrant global trade in the second half of 2024,” said Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, who attended the award ceremony with DEİK President Nail Olpak.
Speaking at the Commercial Diplomacy Awards ceremony, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said, “Turkey’s economy continued to grow in the last 13 quarters. It is pleasing that we, as Turkey, grew by 4.7 percent in a table where Germany shrank by 0.6 percent and the Euro zone grew by 0.5 percent. As of the end of 9 months, our annualized national income exceeded USD 1 trillion 75 billion. Hopefully, when TurkStat announces the growth figures on March 1, we hope to see that we have exceeded USD 1 trillion 100 billion. While the average annual growth rate between 1923 and 2022 was 4.9 percent, we managed to grow by 5.4 percent on average between 2002 and 2022. When we look at the sectors in this sense, Turkey has reached important figures in exports and reached important figures in tourism.” Stating that the global geopolitical tensions and the heavy inflation wave and the contraction in global trade caused by it have created negativities in the world economy, Minister Bolat said, “According to the first preliminary estimates, there is an estimate of 2.5 percent for 2024 and slightly above. Although this depresses us a little, we hope to see a more vibrant economic picture and a more vibrant global trade in the second half of 2024.”
“Global financial conditions will ease slightly”
Speaking at the award ceremony, DEİK President Nail Olpak stated that the interest rate hike process is coming to an end with the downward trend of global inflation and said, “Probably, global financial conditions will loosen a bit. This could be a global opportunity. It is possible for trade routes to become concrete with new transportation opportunities. In this framework, integrated, intermodal transportation infrastructure stands out. We evaluate China’s Belt and Road Project, the US’s Rebuild for a Better World project and the EU’s Global Gateway Project within this framework. The EU Green Transformation and the carbon regulation at the border, which is being carried out under the responsibility of our Ministry of Trade, may seem to cover certain sectors at first, but when it comes into effect, if you do not meet the conditions, it means new additional taxes, i.e. additional barriers. In addition to the already existing visa and truck carnet barriers, these elements will also be on our agenda. The modernization of the Customs Union is also much more important and much more urgent now. Its scope must be expanded to include the agriculture and services sectors and public procurement.”