We addressed the insurance issue in the industry

• 01.03.2024
• Archive

In recent years, our industrial sector has been trying to cope with many structural problems such as access to financial resources, investments, employment, incentives, the tax system, unrecorded revenues and many more. And recently the issue of insurance has been added to all of these. Unfortunately we are witnessing an increase in some of the problems we have previously drawn attention to regarding the insurance of our industrial facilities. We often encountered situations where insurance companies, especially in sectors such as chemistry, paint, plastic and paper, refrained from insuring industrial facilities, demanded very high premiums or did not want to provide coverage. We observe that these problems get even worse with the insurance renewals in 2024. 

At our Parliament meeting last month, I said "Our industry is virtually being uninsured", at the end of my speech just to draw attention to this fact. And it did. The issue received wide coverage in the media and the public. Insurance circles showed various reactions. We also received extremely positive reactions from our industrialists.

Therefore, based on the need for all parties to come together and discuss the issue, we organized an event with the title of "Insuring the Industry in Türkiye - Solution Suggestions". Our Vice President, Mr. Cevdet Yılmaz and our Deputy Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mr. Osman Çelik attended our event and we received high interest of our valuable industrialists and valuable representatives of our insurance sector. Following the opening speeches, we had the opportunity to discuss the issue in detail in the panel moderated by Dr. Alaattin Büyükkaya, Chairman of Büyükkaya International Insurance and Reinsurance Brokerage. I believe that our meeting, the details of which you will find in the following pages, will yield productive results for both parties.

In February, we also discussed the developments in the production and labor world, other important issues of our industry, in our Assembly meeting. You can also find on the following pages the details of our Assembly meeting where we hosted Nihat Zeybekçi, AKP Party’s Vice Chairman of Economic Affairs.

It is not possible for societies to be modern welfare societies if women cannot access education and find jobs. Fortunately, women's education is increasing rapidly in our country. This is one of our agenda topics in this issue. According to the 2022 statistics announced by Turkish Statistical Institute, women's education has improved significantly in recent years. The ratio of women aged 25 and over who completed at least one level of education increased to 87.3 percent in 2021 from 72.6 percent in 2008. We should be able to reflect this more strongly on women's employment, which is still at low levels. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate March 8 International Women's Day.

And this month we will enter a holy month. Ramadan starts from Monday, March 11th. I would like to congratulate the month of Ramadan of the entire Islamic world, hoping that our heart-shaking, blessed and fruitful Ramadan tables will strengthen the feelings of prosperity, health and peace.

Erdal Bahçıvan
Istanbul Chamber of Industry
Chairman