Sabancı Holding CEO Cenk Alper said that more economies need to be reached in order to create billion-dollar companies and responded to the question whether Turkish companies were fleeing abroad as “Turkish companies have to move abroad in order to grow.”
Meeting with a group of journalists, Sabancı Holding CEO Cenk Alper shared his impressions from Davos and evaluated current economic developments.
Stating that the Turkish industry and industrialists have reached the maturity to become global players, Alper said, “This is the way it should be. Turkish companies have to move abroad in order to grow. In Turkey, the turnover figures that companies other than big companies can reach are limited. In order to create billion-dollar companies, you need to reach more economies.”
Alper explained that a company’s globalization journey consists of four steps: ‘Produce for the country’, ‘Produce for export’, ‘Produce there’ and ‘Sell production technologies and production machines’.
“Turkey is at a very good point in terms of exports. Now we need to move to the third and fourth stages. Because we now have companies that produce our own technologies. You know, we have the example of Kordsa. But there are many examples from Turkey around the world. We need access to bigger markets. In many places, this is portrayed as Turkish capital fleeing abroad, but I don’t think so. The issue is access to big markets” said Alper.
Seeking opportunities in world markets
Talking about the group’s energy investments, Alper spoke as follows: “We made a huge energy breakthrough last year. We are number one in both generation and distribution. We continue to grow in Turkey. We are investing more than 1,000 MW. Our distribution investments continue continuously. Now we are looking at opportunities in world markets. We announced two different solar power plant investments in Texas, in the U.S. The first one will start generating electricity towards the end of this month. The full capacity will be commissioned in the next few months.”
“Foreign investor needs time”
Asked whether foreign investors are eager to invest in Turkey within the scope of their contacts in Davos, Alper said, “Foreign investors need some time. I can say this; high inflation scares everyone. But they see that we are on a good path and that the right measures are being taken with the new medium-term plan. The fight against inflation is on the right track. We also support it. But it also needs to be supported by savings. We have a long way to go on that front.”
“Turkey is the way for the Europe-China corridor”
Emphasizing that Turkey has a great potential, Cenk Alper said: “Especially in the energy business, the potential is much bigger. Turkey has a very critical role at this point. Every year, about 10 million containers are brought from China to the West. 98 percent of these 10 million containers come by sea. Sea crossings are exposed to serious risks due to attacks and obstructions. The Siberian passage, which we call the northern corridor, is not safe due to climate problems. The middle corridor, the old Silk Road, which we are in, is one of the efficient routes. Turkey’s position here is incredible. With our highways, bridges and gas lines, I can say that Turkey is the most developed country that can provide this transfer. From this point of view, Turkey can be both a production and distribution base, not just a transit route. In short, we are the road in this corridor…”
Turkey should mobilize for productive artificial intelligence
The world is on the brink of a new technological revolution. This is the issue of productive artificial intelligence. The sectors where artificial intelligence is used the most are pharmaceuticals, chemistry, material technologies… If Turkey is to embark on a new mobilization, it must be a productive artificial intelligence mobilization. We must keep our trained manpower here. We must bring these technologies to this country as fast as possible. Because with these technologies, the competitive advantage that developing countries gain from cheap labor costs completely disappears. Look, the biggest cost today is software… Currently, 30-40 percent of software is written by artificial intelligence. It will bring an incredible competitive advantage to companies that have it. When all this comes together with quantum computing, we are talking about something that is endless.
Alper made the following comments on the highlights at Davos:
UAE, S.ARABIA, INDIA AND CHINA…
- We are going to Davos to understand the trends and collaborations in a multipolar world. This year we were present in 4 sessions. We fit the meeting we would hold in 6 months into 4-5 days in Davos.
- The prominent problems are Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas. But the real tension is on the US-China axis. There are two main reasons for this; one is energy and the other is information technologies. All Taiwan issues are developing over chip technologies.
- China dominates critical minerals and intermediate products of technologies all over the world. No one except China has invested in these critical minerals for almost 10 years. A decision was taken at the COP and it was said; “Let’s triple renewable energy investments.” OK, let’s do it, but China has the material and production capacity, and there is no way to carry out this work without their cooperation.
- Fatih Birol, President of the International Energy Agency, and an EU official summarized: “Europe made three fundamental mistakes. First, it made energy dependent on Russia, production and technology dependent on China and security dependent on the US.” We should not be too surprised at the current situation.
- There are countries that stood out in Davos. The first is the UAE and Saudi Arabia. They allocate all the money from oil and gas to technology funds and energy transformation. The other is India. They are now competing on a state-by-state basis. And finally China. They are investing in clean energy, high technology and digital. So Europe is seriously lagging behind. The US, as always, continues its safe growth by attracting entrepreneurs to the country.
