Entering to another 10-year-period...
- 25.12.2019
- Archive
We are ending 2019 as a stressful year even not as much as 2018. While taking our first steps towards a new 10-year-period, if I was faced with the question of “What we remember about 2019 in economical sense?” I would say that “the success we achieved in the financial balance.” We were aware that 2019 following a strong financial crisis will not be an easy year for our economy. However, thanks to the strong stance and will of our government towards the end of 2018, our economy especially the financial markets managed to achieve financial balance.
Saving the exchange market from high volatility and instability and achieving a particular balance, accordingly, improving the inflation upon this stabilization and balancing and reducing to around 10 percent, and reducing Central Bank interests which is an important element of the balance and we have seen 24 percent during the year to around 12 percent.... And additionally, experiencing a year during which we had talked about “current surplus” not “current deficit”...
Considering all of these facts, I would like to emphasize that a significant success was obtained in the financial arm of our government's rebalancing target set by the end of 2018. We seized the opportunity to discuss such developments in the finance world with Mr. Murat Uysal, the President of T.R Central Bank whom we hosted as our guest in the last Assembly meeting. We expressed that this recovery should be transformed into an investment opportunity for a qualified and sustainable economy in 2020. Within this context, we stated that we had a strong belief that the Central Bank will focus on enabling our firms to have a robust financial structure for the development of competitive production and efficiency. You can find the assessments of Mr. Uysal on the following pages.
As ICI, we are environmental-friendly. We are not only discussing it conceptually in various meetings and raising awareness, but also support it with the steps that have taken in the field. I can give the afforestation works that we have been carrying out since 1994 as an example in this regard. We have planted nearly 41 thousands of saplings in Çatalca, Pendik, Şile, Kemerburgaz in Istanbul and Ankara, İzmir, Antalya, Çanakkale, Tekirdağ, Kayseri ve Adıyaman. We took another step that makes us happy in this regard the last month. As ICI, we planted the first 20 thousands saplings of Members Memorial Forest project in Şile with the participation of our Board of Directors and Assembly members.
Along with such feelings, I hope 2020 through which we will step into a "New 10-Year-Period" will bring peace, health and success to our country and all our loved ones, and congratulate everyone on the New Year.
Erdal Bahçıvan
Istanbul Chamber of Industry
Chairman