Ümit Boyner named new chairwoman of TÜSİAD

The election took place yesterday during TÜSİAD’s 40th ordinary general assembly meeting, where Boyner and the new board were elected with 198 votes out of a total of 200. Delivering a speech at the meeting after the announcement of the results, Boyner stated that she and her friends “feel honor and great excitement to head TÜSİAD for the next two years.” Boyner, speaking on the importance of TÜSİAD, noted that the association is the most well-known group in Turkey. “TÜSİAD is the most powerful, intellectually strong, independent nongovernmental organization. For about 40 years, it has conducted important studies and exerted great effort to determine what should be the agenda of Turkey, and most of the time the agendas suggested by TÜSİAD have become the road map for the country,” she said. Boyner, announcing that the new program of TÜSİAD will be presented in February, said the program will focus on problem solving and will be based on measurable criteria.

She emphasized the importance of building an industrial and services strategy to reduce unemployment and drew attention to the fact that regulation deficiency, which is the main reason for the global economic recession, still continues. “As a member of the G-20, Turkey does not have a comprehensive strategy to build its own economic future, and a healthy environment to discuss this cannot be created. For us this is not an acceptable situation,” Boyner stated, adding that a business organization’s demand from the state can only be “cooperation.”

Unemployment needs focus

Delivering a speech prior to the election, outgoing TÜSİAD Chairwoman Yalçındağ said there had been radical political changes in Turkey and a great world economic crisis since she was appointed as the association’s head three years ago. Yalçındağ said the problems and conflicts that arose after the crisis were not over yet; however, a healthy and promising atmosphere would appear once they were overcome.

The global economy needs a more participatory and democratic administration nowadays, she said, stating that Turkey, as a G-20 member and a regional power, acted as the economic generator of a problematic region. International dynamics, energy geopolitics and the economy of the upcoming term urge Turkey to play a more active role in the international system, Yalçındağ mentioned, adding that social and political peace is not reached to enable turning this potential into a reality.

The Turkish economy contracted by 6 percent in 2009 due to the global recession, she said, but added that domestic problems also played a crucial role in this contraction. Yalçındağ cited political instability, the slowdown in the European Union accession process and the deterioration in public financial balances as domestic factors behind the contraction. Emphasizing the unemployment problem, she said more focus should be put on the development of active employment policies in the coming period.

As a way out of the recession, Yalçındağ remarked that a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should be evaluated correctly. “As we said before, a mid-term economic program is necessary and comprehensive; however, we do not think that it can function by its own.”

The new board in the next term includes Arkas Holding Chairman Lucien Arkas; Acıbadem Health Group Chairman and Acıbadem University board of trustees President Mehmet Ali Aydınlar; PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Turkey President Cansen Başaran Symes; Koç Holding Banking and Insurance Group President, Yapı Kredi Chairman and Koç Financial Services CEO Tayfun Bayazıt; Sabancı Holding Retail Group President and CarrefourSA Chairman Haluk Dinçer; Rönesans Construction Chairman Erman Ilıcak; Kibar Holding Chairman and CEO Ali Kibar; Doğan Holding consultant retired Ambassador Volkan Vural; and Sütaş Chairman Muharrem Yılmaz.