The Importance of Collaboration with Local Authorities...

• 01.08.2024
• Archive

Local authorities are the first level of public participation in governance due to the roles they play in democratic life and the functions they assume in delivering public services to the public. Decisions taken properly also enable the effective execution of services.

We are aware that it is not easy to manage a huge city, a metropolis like Istanbul, which accommodates approximately 20 percent of Türkiye's population and has a diverse cultural and demographic structure. Overcoming these difficulties is only possible through "collaborations", which has become the most effective working model in today's modern world.

In this context, we hosted Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality at our Joint Meeting of Professional Committees, one of the important events of our Chamber. We are already collaborating with them in some projects through Istanbul Planning Agency and IMM Disaster Coordination Center (AKOM) and Institute Istanbul/ISMEK.

Our Joint Meeting of Professional Committees was organized with the theme "The Place of Our Industry in Istanbul's Future Vision, Problems and Solution Suggestions", which you can find its details on the following pages. As I said in that meeting, I would like to express here as well that I find the future vision of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality regarding Istanbul valuable as an important stakeholder. With this understanding, I believe that our meeting last month with Mr. İmamoğlu was successful and productive.

I would also like to mention here another important event we organized last month in terms of the follow-up of some of the projects we have implemented. First, we traveled to Şırnak and Hakkari together with our Assembly Members in June. During this trip, we signed the ICI Vocational Training and Collaboration Protocol and ICI MEIP protocol, which we have been implementing as an exemplary project in Istanbul for 5 years, with the Şırnak Governorship, Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education, Şırnak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Şırnak Provincial Directorate of National Education. For this protocol, our colleagues went to Şırnak together with our Istanbul Provincial Director of National Education, Assoc. Prof. Mücahit Yentür, and held the first joint meeting with the relevant units. I believe that this project will make a difference in vocational high schools and vocational education in Şırnak, and its surrounding cities and districts, just like in Istanbul.

Last month, we held our Assembly meeting without a guest with the main agenda of "Economic Situation and Employment Policies: The economic situation of our country, inflation, unemployment, economic growth strategies and new tax regulations". In July Assembly Meeting, we put forward our opinions and evaluations on the reasons for the process we are going through today in our economy, and our Assembly Members also made solution-oriented contributions, making our meeting productive. 

I hope that August brings health and peace for all of us.

Erdal Bahçıvan
Istanbul Chamber of Industry 
Chairman of the Board of Directors