Pandemic and Wheels of Industry...

• 28.09.2020
• Archive

The World Health Organization announced that a new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) was described as pandemic on 11th, March. Besides, the World Health Organization stated that “they are highly concerned about the seriousness and spread of the pandemic”.

We have seen that this concern is not unfounded all over the world and in our country in the last 6 months. Countries in the world turned inward and the wheels of social life and economy completely stopped. The most optimistic hopes were that the pandemic would alleviate and we would go back to normal. Pandemic data in our country and the whole world, especially the Europe in the early-July was supporting this expectation.

However, pandemic alarms started to ring in the world during the recent weeks. A concerning announcement was made by the World Health Organization during the mid-September. Accordingly, the authorized persons stated that we are just at the beginning of the impacts to be caused by the pandemic.

I would like to say that coronovirus creates a new concern wave and in the economy front, especially the wheels of the industry are still turning. It is admiring that any problem has not been experienced in neither logistics nor supply so far. As Istanbul Chamber of Industry, we are putting great efforts to fulfill our responsibilities in such historical period. Since the first days of the pandemic, we have been trying to protect the health of the employees of the whole industry and keep the production wheels operating through both online and physical meetings. In this regard, we continue to work in coordination with all relevant ministries and non-governmental organizations. We try to get together with our ministries during the pandemic period frequently and negotiate the issues regarding the industry by dialog method.

We had two important meetings that we had organized in this regard. The first was the ICI Profession Committee’s Common Meeting that we held as a video conference with the participation of Mr. Abdullah Tancan, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources and the senior bureaucrats of the ministry. It was a highly productive meeting of which details you can read on the following pages and we discussed the important and current energy-related issues of our industry in a solution-oriented manner.

Another meeting of us was the TOBB Chambers of Industry Council Meeting that I chaired where we discussed the significant subjects on the industry’s agenda. It was a productive meeting that we organized in such a challenging period when we have been in need of collaboration, sharing, negotiation and common mind more than ever and with the participation of Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, the President of TOBB.

We organized the Assembly meeting with the participation of Mr. Zafer Sönmez, the General Director of Turkish Wealth Fund. Significant subjects such as providing fund to the investments, the importance of Turkish Wealth Fund in terms of the industrial development, public-private sector collaboration in technology-based mega investments were discussed.

We should accept that we are going through a very challenging period. However, our country has experienced many crises so far and managed to embrace the bright days by patience. And I strongly believe that we will leave this challenging period behind us.

Erdal Bahçıvan
Istanbul Chamber of Industry
Chairman