TÜSİAD High Advisory Council Meeting was held in Istanbul with the Participation of the Speaker of the National Assembly Mr. Cemil Çiçek

TÜSİAD High Advisory Council meeting was held in Istanbul Sabancı Center, on September 14, 2012. The opening speeches were given by Mr. Erkut Yücaoğlu, Chairman of the High Advisory Council and by Ms. Ümit Boyner, the President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD. Following the opening speeches, the guest of honor Mr. Cemil Çiçek, the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, made a keynote speech.

In his speech Mr. Erkut Yücaoğlu remarked that the growth rates have decreased in the world economy and the outlook of 2013 is even weaker than that of 2012. Mr. Yücaoğlu pointed out the emerging comments anticipating the growth of the Turkish economy at a rate less than 4 percent and concluded as follows: “As the public revenues will decrease with the decreasing growth rate, we have to keep an eye on the public expenditures and we must continue with the structural measures to reduce the current account deficit permanently. I am speaking as “we” because we also have a responsibilities and a mission about this. Esteemed TÜSİAD members, you are the embodiment of the private sector, the driving force of the development of our country. Regarding the burning hot domestic and foreign political situation, I have to advise you to protect your growth oriented impulse but to prepare for 2013 with due caution.”

Ms. Ümit Boyner, following her initial remarks about the recent terrorist attacks, expressed that in a developed society, individuals base their relationship with the state on their rights and liberties. She stated that such individuals “question current events, demand their due, they expect clear cut, intelligible, transparent explications following important developments. When catastrophic tragedies strike fellow citizens, they want to find out whoever are the responsible, and to be sure that these are reprimanded deservedly. One of the criteria of how the state values its citizens is the swiftness of revealing crimes, felonies, misdeeds against its citizens.” Denoting that the citizens are disturbed of the fact that the sphere of politics is becoming polarized as in the previous decades and are worried to see political parties refusing to contact each other, let alone communicating effectively, Ms. Boyner said: “We are afraid of seeing an imperious attitude to dominate once again the mode of governance of our country.” She underlined the importance of the swiftness of revealing crimes against the citizens as the hallmark of the a state valuing its citizens, Boyner spoke as follows: “Citizens want to understand what happened in Uludere, the background and causes of the Explosion in Afyon; they want to know who are responsible. They don’t want to remain silent. They absolutely don’t want to be silenced by the appointed administrators as in the days of the coup d’état, nor by the ones elected by their own vote.” Mentioning the new incentive scheme implemented by the government, Ms. Boyner said that she believes that “the new incentive scheme is important to the economic integration of the region.” Ms. Boyner announced that a survey on this topic, covering TÜSİAD members and investors in the region, is being conducted and she said: “We probed about the content of the incentive scheme. We tried to gather the opinions on the 6th region. The result of the survey will soon be shared with the general public.” Ms. Boyner underlined the importance and the value of the invitation of the Speaker of the National Assembly, in other words the invitation of the head of the institution representing the sovereignty of the nation/citizens calling for a common attitude against the evil tormenting the country. She declared her support as follows: “We particularly want to underline the emphasis in his draft document on the basic principles of the democratic state of law and on the human rights. We enthusiastically approve the efforts towards a democratic consensus. In case the document needs to be perfected, we take it as our duty to contribute to this end.”