Hope 2019 will be the Year of Peace, Stability and Efficiency

• 25.12.2018
• Archive

When we look at the entire world in the first days of the new year, we see that the factor which differentiates the industries of developed countries from those of competitors is their high competitive capacity. Of course, this capacity cannot be achieved easily. A “Qualified Labor Force” which has a strong roots and constantly fed is the sole factor that puts these countries forward in competition and enables them to produce high added value products with advanced technology. If we are intended to proceed our industry and our country in line with our great goals, we need to solve this fundamental issue firstly.

We held the November Assembly meeting with the agenda of "The Importance of the Vision of a New Education Model in a World Focused on Competition, Science and Technology for Our Industry” to address the most fundamental topic of our industry. We needed to address such an important agenda with our Minister of Education of course, and Mr. Ziya Selçuk, the Minister of Education visited our Assembly and listened the agenda and expectations of our industrialists and shared his ideas accordingly.

I would like to express that as industrialists, the aim to strengthen the relation of Education-Employment-Production in Vocational and Technical Education included in 2023 Education Vision Document announced by T.R Ministry of Education is of vital importance and very promising to set such an aim for the industrialists. Because, establishing a new structure for the vocational tendencies of the children will enable the qualified labor force to be sustainable and more important that make a great and qualified contribution to the industrial production.

We organized an important meeting for the industry sector by bringing our Professional Committees (MESKOM) Members and our Ministry of Commerce together the last month. Mr. Ruhsar Pekcan, the Minister of Trade joined us in the first MESKOM meeting of this new business period. We seized the opportunity to discuss the agenda off our 55 Professional Committees through the presentations made by the sectoral experts.

As ICI, we have a responsibility understanding based on being a part of the efforts to look for a solution in economical, social, environmental and cultural matters of our country. Our activities for the environment and climate, which started in 1987 establishing the first environmental branch in our organization maintain their existence by being renewed and strengthened within the inevitable transformation and interaction process of today’s world. During this renewal and strengthening process, we presented the ICI Environment Awards to the winning industrial organizations with the participation of Mr. Murat Kurum, the Minister of Environment and Urbanization. I would like to congratulate all winners again.

'Big Bang Start-up Challenge' competition of ITU Core Early Stage Incubation Center for which we are the stakeholder and main sponsors for four years enabled us to get to know the promising young entrepreneurs this year as well. On the following pages, you can read about this year’s winners and our three entrepreneurs granted with the grand awards of our chamber. I have no doubt that the future of our industry is as much promising and bright as the future of the young and promising entrepreneurs. On this occasion, I hope 2019 will bring peace, stability and efficiency for our country, economy and industry.

Erdal Bahçıvan
Istanbul Chamber of Industry
Chairman