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Construction Sector and Future Vision Was Discussed in March Assembly of Istanbul Chamber of Industry

27.03.2019
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Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) March ordinary Assembly meeting was held on 27 March 2019 in Odakule with the main agenda of "The Role and Future Vision of Construction Sector in Sustainable Growth of Industry”. Deniz Aksu, the General Director of Emlak Katılım Bankası A.Ş participated in the Assembly Meeting which was directed by Zeynep Bodur Okyay, the Chairperson of ICI Assembly.

Erdal Bahçıvan, the Chairperson of Board of Directors of Istanbul Chamber of Industry drew attention that the industrialists spend their energy and capital to the land problem, factory construction, etc. instead of value added production, technological transformation in the speech he made about the assembly agenda and said that: “Long-term industrial land and factory buildings can be provided by allocating the suitable lands for the private sector based on projects via renting with Real Estate Industry model.”

Bahçıvan: “The most significant benefit of this model is that the land can be guaranteed to provide service to factories and production for 49 years or more. The land is no longer considered as an area where the title owner can realize projects with different from industrial purposes because of the increase in the value of unearned income. Therefore, capital of the industrialist will not be based on the land and building and they can focus on “producing” which is the actual purpose of them.”

ICI March ordinary Assembly meeting was opened by ICI Assembly President Zeynep Bodur Okyay. Okyay talked about assembly agenda briefly as follows:

“The construction sector has made great impact and contribution to the growth of Turkish economy in the last 16 years. This contribution has been criticized with some reasonable reasons because they can think “Our rare resources are wasted.” by some sections. This is a fact that the construction sector is one of the most significant foundations not only in the developing countries like ours but also in the whole world for the development. It is of vital importance to tell this to all stakeholders properly and transforming the construction sector into a facilitative way for the development. As you all know, average share of construction within the OECD countries is in the level of 6,5%. This rate is 9% in Türkiye. So, instead of criticizing the construction sector, we should correct the mistakes made swiftly and go on our own way influentially. Therefore, we should specify our future vision in such areas especially. As a whole, the construction sector is the leading one among the sectors where Türkiye has comparative superiority in the global arena. This sector refers to 32 different construction material manufacturer sub-sectors which create economical growth for 106 billion dollars totally, carry out export for more than 21 billion dollars and employ 1,5 million people. Therefore, we have to consider the construction sector as one of the most important parameters of a sustainable growth based on industry with services and agriculture. Of course, going on our way by correcting the mistakes made up today by the sector is of great importance and value. It is highly obvious that building a barrier before the land rent which makes industrialist very helpless in the new investments is highly important. And also, we attach great importance to the rating approach for a market operating in a healthy way. Similarly, increase in the effectiveness in human resource in construction sector like in each area is of critical importance.”

Then, Okyay invited ICI President Erdal Bahçıvan to the stage to make his speech about the Assembly’s main agenda item. Erdal Bahçıvan, the Chairperson of ICI Board of Directors said that one of the positive assumptions towards the construction sector in our country is because of not meeting the need for the investments of substructure in Türkiye as a developing economy in the long run.

Stating that while already conducting 238 projects based on public-private business cooperation, some mega projects such as Istanbul Airport and Çanakkala 1915 Bridge are under development, Bahçıvan said that: “We attach great value for the awareness increasing gradually on meeting the need of input capacity of such projects from the national industry. Developments such as increasing population and urbanization, substructure requirements, sustainability, energy efficiency need the transformation of construction sector. In this sense, sustainable smart buildings, green constructions, cities and systems which are environmental friendly, carry social responsibility, energy efficient, have a direct impact on social structure.

Emphasizing that they are going through a period when the capital is getting rare gradually and efficient resource usage is of great importance, Bahçıvan stated that: “The industrialists have to spend their all energy and capital to the matters such as value added production, technological transformation, digitalization; however, the matters such as land problem, factory construction the leading problems on our agenda, unfortunately. Within this scope, we would like to remind our suggestion which we have mentioned as ICI before for allocating long-term industry land and factory building to the private sector in line with the projects of suitable lands via renting with “Real Estate Industry” model. Bahçıvan continued:

“The most significant benefit of this model is that the land can be guaranteed to provide service to factories and production for 49 years or more. The land is no longer considered as an area where the title owner can realize projects with different from industrial purposes because of the increase in the value of unearned income. Therefore, the industrialists will not have to depend on the land and building in terms of their capital. And thanks to this opportunity, the industrialists can focus on “producing” which is the actual purpose of the industrialist.

Bahçıvan completed his speech by:

“We have always cared about the problems of construction sector which is the locomotive of our economy like the other sectors as ICI and we will continue to care.” With common logic, effective cooperation between the sectors and dialog, we will find solutions for the problems.”

Then Deniz Aksu, the General Director of Emlak Katılım Bankası A.Ş called for industrialists and said that the industrialists are real patriots. Mentioning that Emlak Bank is a bank established by Ataturk, Aksu told the history of the bank. Stating that their headquarter is in Ataşehir, Aksu provided the information that they will open 15 branches in this year.

Touching upon that indusry sector and construction sector are in a serious communication, Aksu stated that the 86% of the growth in Türkiye has been improved through an internal demand. Expressing that property demand is constant, Aksu said that Emlak Bank carries out search conference in succession and they need to come over the collection problem. Accordingly stating that they are planning the financing of supply chain, Aksu mentioned that they just proceed from urbanization to industrialization and they need to plan the urban transformation properly.

Aksu continued:

“Manufacturing expenses should be harmonized. Re-earning of the land is of great importance. The operations to be carried out for the re-usage of the assets should be planned, as well. Banking should take place in this matter for solving the collection problem and renewing the construction. We should transform into a structure which has no financing burden, refund burden and maturity burden. We do not step into innovative and sustainable construction market, we cannot save our economy. We should act together, take steps together and we should rely on our strength.

Ferdi Erdoğan, the Chairperson of IMSAD and ICI Assembly Member at the same time made a presentation which is reflecitng the general overview of the construction sector and construction industry sector in a detailed way in the Assembly meeting. Ferdi Erdoğan expressed that they took the opinions of numerous firms in the sector for the presentation they prepared. Stating that the construction sector is the sector which is most affected and gives the most firm reaction towards the growth and reduction of the economy of construction sector, Erdoğan provided the information that the sectoral export is 21.5 billion dollars and sectoral import is 8.1 billion dollars.

Following the speeches, ICI Assembly Members came to the rostrum and shared their opinions about the main agenda.