The global supply chain consists of different segments: mineral, raw material, semi-finished product and final product. An unexpected break in the rings of this chain could suddenly turn this commercial flow upside down. As a matter of fact, this is exactly the situation the world is experiencing. The fact that economies that relied on China, especially the Far East, for decades forgot about production and turned to consuming ready-made and cheap products suddenly collapsed with the pandemic. Increasing freight prices have caused many countries to turn inward or to closer geographies for supply points. This is the source of the intense export increase in our country. Turkey, which is arguably the most superior country in its geography in light, medium and partly heavy industry branches, encountered an unexpectedly large and intense demand. Our country, which is one of the rare countries that can manage production infrastructure and raw material flow correctly, can emerge from this process with great gains. Our country, which has been losing markets day by day since the year China joined the WTO, can easily regain the customers and markets it lost if it can continue this process rationally. This great and important opportunity definitely has some critical conditions. The first of these is the supply of raw materials, and it can be said that the world is still heavily dependent on China in this regard. We must make the right use of this important opportunity and seriously support investments in raw material production that can be an import substitute. Otherwise, our developing and growing economy may suddenly go out like a fire and return to its old static structure. We must use this opportunity and move our economy to a phase where it will stand more firmly on the ground. The second condition is capacity increase. This important issue should always be on our agenda because it is impossible to turn this valuable opportunity into profit without the machinery infrastructure to meet the sudden and high demand. In this sense, it is an undeniable fact that our country develops production-oriented projects. Again, ensuring sufficient workforce should never be forgotten. It must be ensured urgently that our young population is directed to produce and loves production. So much so that special programs should be developed on this issue and it is essential for all our institutions, especially our universities, to take reformist actions. A youth that does not produce, a generation that does not know what it means to produce, will turn to pure consumption, which will mean that this development opportunity before us will be lost in a short time. Another issue is the focus on increasing exports to distant lands as well as our immediate geography. To put it clearly, it is essential that we develop an extraordinary and transformation-oriented perspective in this field. We should focus on increasing our trade with countries that are not affected by daily and cyclical political developments and with whom our global relations will not easily deteriorate. In this way, it will be possible for us to establish a stable, permanent and sustainable export structure, and our companies will be minimally affected by periodic fluctuations. Finally, we shape our production facilities in a way that respects nature and the environment, consumes minimum resources, and focuses on recycling and global balance. In this way, we will minimize the risk in the face of surprise expectations and changes that may arise in our export markets, especially EU countries. We will continue on our way and continue our growth uninterruptedly, without giving any leverage against the political forces that want to wear us and our economy down, slow down our speed and block our path by putting forward different excuses.
Our country faces a very, very big potential. We will either turn this process into a historic opportunity, or we will end it with a miss that will be hard to come by again. We explain this on every platform and in every field, and reiterate that we must embrace this process tightly and seriously. I hope that all stakeholders of our beautiful country will come together on the same axis and together we will achieve this economic transformation that we can present to our future generations. On this occasion, I wholeheartedly congratulate you on your 29 October Republic Day and offer my respects with the hope that it will bring many more victories to our country.
