Özhaseki, Turkish Minister of Environment and Urbanization, Attends ICI December Assembly Meeting

• 27.12.2017
• News

Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) held its ordinary assembly meeting for December to also discuss the 2018 budget on 27 December 2018 in Odakule with the main agenda of "The Importance of Planned Environment and Urbanization Mentality in a Production-Oriented Economy in Respect of Future Vision of our Industry and Raising Awareness for our Next Generation Industry". The assembly meeting that was chaired by ICI Assembly President Zeynep Bodur Okyay welcomed Özhaseki, Turkish Minister of Environment and Urbanization. Before beginning to discuss the main agenda of the meeting, ICI Vice Chairman Irfan Özhamaratlı made a presentation regarding the restoration of Odakule. Following this presentation, 2018 budget was discussed, voted and approved by ICI Assembly Members.

Turkish Minister of Environment
and Urbanization Mehmet Özhaseki

Mehmet Özhaseki, Turkish Minister of Environment and Urbanization attended the last monthly ordinary meeting of Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) Assembly in 2017, and made a speech. "66 percent of our lands and 71 percent of our population are in earthquake zone. Northern Anatolia fault line reached the Princess' Islands in Istanbul. Thus, we will make the year 2018 a year of urban transformation. 500 thousand structures will be renewed. And 150-200 thousand of these are in Istanbul." said Özhaseki.

ICI Chairman Erdal Bahçıvan also made a speech regarding the main agenda of the assembly: "The competitive power of our industry that had to nomadise in Istanbul is hindered. Two new Organized Industrial Zones should be established to enable the transformation of our industry in Istanbul as one in European side and one in Asian side. These Organized Industrial Zones will free the industry from the housing pressure and enable the capacity increase. Our future vision in industry is a new generation industrial mentality embracing clean production besides technological transformation. The environmentally-friendly industry with clean production has no negative impact on the urban life." said Bahçıvan.

ICI December assembly meeting was opened by ICI Assembly President Zeynep Bodur Okyay. While opening the meeting, Okyay also shared her ideas about the agenda:

ICI Assembly President
Zeynep Bodur Okyay

"We, as Istanbul Chamber of Industry, claim that 'development is not possible without industry'. Considering all these developments, we may say that the development model that our country needs today requires smart and sustainable growth in every aspect. We witness that the cities in the world increasingly grow both demographically and economically, and even outpace countries. And this means that the future competition will not be among countries, but among cities. We should use this opportunity well, reveal the potential of our cities and make a move in this subject. We should turn our cities into the main economic actors that will fulfill the needs of the increasing population in our cities and carry Türkiye to better positions using the power and driving force of the industry." said Okyay.

Following this speech, ICI Assembly President Zeynep Bodur Okyay invited ICI Chairman Erdal Bahçıvan to the stage to talk about the agenda. Bahçıvan began his speech by commemorating ICC Chairman Ibrahim Çağlar that we had lost recently.

ICI Chairman Bahçıvan

Attracting attention to the defensiveness of the societies and cities growing away from industry in 2008 global finance crisis against global fluctuations and crises, ICI Chairman Bahçıvan reminded that they have also seen cities of some countries with old generation production mentality went bust in years following 2008. Bahçıvan stated that the countries surviving crisis began to discuss production-oriented economy once again by taking their lesson from the crisis and to adopt an industrial vision. Bahçıvan named this vision as an environmentally friendly and clean production, where production technologies are developed and added value is high.

Underlining once again the importance gained by the planned environment and urbanization mentality while mentioning next generation industry and production-oriented economy, Bahçıvan stated that they do not an idea to maintain the industry in Istanbul as it is without change. Bahçıvan also stated that the future vision of the industry should be based on new generation industry mentality. Stating that next generation industry embracing clean production should not be just seen as a technological transformation, Bahçıvan continued by saying that clean production also means new approaches and behaviors regarding industrialists' environmental perspective and relations with nature.

Indicating that 'smart cities' stand out throughout the world as the dynamic urbanization mentality gains value, Bahçıvan recorded that smart city administrations require instant data collection and review in areas such as infrastructure, transportation and economic operations in order to use the opportunities and resources of the urban life with optimum efficiency. Mentioning the importance of the current efforts of respective organizations to improve the smart city qualities of Istanbul for establishing a future-ready vision, Bahçıvan underlined the big benefits of including industry into the efforts made for creating a smart city.

Bahçıvan continued:

"As Istanbul Chamber of Industry, we have a holistic view regarding the restructuring of the industry in Istanbul. Nevertheless, I would like to attract attention to the very important issue that hinders the competitive power of our industry. And that is the failure to fulfill the settlement need of our industry. As I mentioned in various other platforms before, we see an unsettled and event a nomadic industry in Istanbul. We believe that the organized industrial zones are very important since they provide an effective solution to this settlement issue of the industry. Within this framework, I would like to express once again our demand for two new organized industrial zones in European side and Asian side of Istanbul to enable the transformation of our industry."

After this speech, Mehmet Özhaseki, Turkish Minister of Environment and Urbanization took the stage to address ICI Assembly Members. Özhaseki stated that the two concepts, environment and urbanization, are handled together in their industry even though that is not the case in the rest of the world, and named the still urbanizing state of Türkiye as the reason of such an approach. Mentioning that environment and climate change are among the most discussed subjects of the world, Özhaseki stated that the production age had begun with the industrial revolution and environmental issues began to rise after that. Stating that the world population will reach 9 billion in 2050, Özhaseki said that the temperature increased 1 degree since 1850, the sea level rose 19 cm in 120 years and the carbon emission increased 42 percent in 100 years. Özhaseki blamed the humans to disrupt the balance of the earth by mentioning the threats of precipitation irregularities, natural disasters and droughts.

Underlining the need of Türkiye to grow and develop, Özhaseki recorded the necessity of Türkiye to be strong in order to survive in its geography. Özhaseki said that it is essential to make investments without damaging the nature and that Türkiye is a part in international agreements. Reminding Türkiye's signature in 2015 Paris Climate Convention, Özhaseki stated that they will not be approving this at the Turkish National Assembly as it is since it brings unfair responsibilities to Türkiye. Özhaseki stated their desire to benefit from the green climate fund provided by the Paris Climate Convention.

Mentioning the numerous objections that they face regarding the investments in energy, Özhaseki said that they are being criticized unfairly especially about nuclear energy. Özhaseki said that Türkiye needs domestic and national resources to develop further, and thus access to nuclear energy, and that the constructions of 450 nuclear power plants continue in the world despite of all the objections. Telling that they are separating paper, plastics, glass etc. and no waste goes out with zero waste project that they had launched in the ministry building, Özhaseki stated that they are improving this project with other public buildings and willing private sector organizations in Ankara.

ICI Vice Chairman Irfan Özhamaratlı

Stating that city planning began too late in Türkiye, Özhaseki stated that Istanbul was unprepared for the migration started in 1950s. Underlining the unhealthy and unprincipled state of big cities in 2000s, Özhaseki reminded that Türkiye is in an earthquake zone and its cities should be ready for any earthquake. Özhaseki said that they will be initiating urban transformation campaign in 2018 with the goal to renew 7.5 million individual structures. "66 percent of our lands and 71 percent of our population is in earthquake zone. Northern Anatolia fault line reached the Princess' Islands in Istanbul. Thus, we will make the year 2018 a year of urban transformation. 500 thousand structures will be renewed. And 150-200 thousand of these are in Istanbul." said Özhaseki.

Following these speeches, ICI Assembly Members continued discussing 2008 budget. After voting each article, 2018 budget offer and reasons of the board were accepted.