No Economy Was Able to Get Away From Pandemic

• 27.10.2020
• Archive

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented crisis in the modern world, especially in developed and developing countries from health and education to economy and social life. We started to see the first outcomes. In the GDP data of the OECD countries for the second quarter of 2020, it is understood that no country could pass to the growth path except for China.

As specified in the news of “Pandemic and Its First Outcomes in World Economies” that you can read in detail on the following pages, while the average contraction in the economies of the OECD countries was above 10 percent, the second quarter shrinkage was between 7 and 25 percent in 16 of the G20 countries. We know that our economy has also shrunk by 11 percent and has been negatively impacted by this process.

On the other hand, we can say that we have been able to continue to turn the wheels of our economy without causing any problem in terms of basic living requirements so far. In this process, we have fulfilled our responsibilities and duties without any failure within collaboration with all sections of the society and devotedly during this process.

As the industrialists, we have always demonstrated that we have the ability to cope with difficulties and to reverse the wind. In this regard, I would like to express that we have demonstrated a laudable success for the last seven months. Even under these challenging circumstances, our factories continued to operate. We have not experienced any setback in the supply chain. I can also say that we have served as an example for many countries by our success. Therefore, we have proved once again that the industry and industrialists are the friends of the economy during the challenging periods.

As ICI, we continue to guide our industrialists in many ways during this challenging process. We launched a series of training on a very important subject for our industrialists for whom we have produced solutions for their needs in information and legislation with many subjects and guests the last month. We aim to reveal the sectoral sustainability priorities of industrial companies and to bring them together with a subject and guest every week through these training seminars we named as “ICI Sustainability Days”.

As Istanbul Chamber of Industry, we attach great importance to dealing with issues regarding our industry through mutual meetings and dialogue with our Ministries at regular intervals. In this regard, we hosted Mr. Ruhsar Pekcan, T.R Minister of Trade in September assembly meeting and held a very efficienct meeting regarding the agenda of “To Focus on Risks and Opportunities for the Industry when Aiming in Accelerating Economy and Export during Pandemic” which you will read in details on the following pages.

We held the Board of Trustees meeting of our Istanbul Chamber of Industry Foundation which we established for a lofty aim a quarter century ago and left this period behind with numerous successes. I would like to thank all of our members who provide their support for the work of our foundation with great enthusiasm. I would like to express once again that we will continue to support our youngsters and continue to our joint future through the trust and support we receive from the members of Board of Trustees without loosing our excitement.

We have been feeling a great excitement as a nation at the end of every October for 97 years. The source of this excitement is is our Republic that paves the way for the national will and the participation of the people in administration. I celebrate our Republic Day and commemorate Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of our Republic, his fellow fighters and sacred martrys with respect and may God rest their souls and our veterans with gratitudes.

Erdal Bahçıvan
Istanbul Chamber of Industry
Chairman