ASKON Association of Anatolian Businessmen (1998)

INTRODUCTION

It's an emotionally hard situation to face with some difficulties as being people of a country with a high potential. In fact, our country has a variety of advantages in many areas.

Turkey has such prosperitis as having a historical profundity, political diversity and entegration, scientific resources and geopolitical status. She is also one of the rare countries those have an important quantity of human capital.

We are aware of being citizens of a state being one of the biggest economic and military power in the world, having immense natural resources. And all we are efforting to do is using all our capacity, and sharing and exchanging our advantages with all other countries.

We, as an association of businessmen, believe on mutual and multilateral winning; and trying to take the correct steps through this criteria. This is provided, we belive, by doing the right business on the right time, and with the right partners. Many
things will be better, then.

ASKON is ready to use all of its facilities to develop our trading, political, cultural cooperation with all of the partners.

With best regards

Mustafa Koca
President of ASKON

GENERAL APPROACH

Production is the main factor in the economy. But it's also an ethic responsibility as well as being an economic concept. Consumption without production
brings degeneration. ‘Production' has a wider meaning today than it used to have in the past. Producing information is recently more important than goods and service production; it has located to the center of competition. Hence, we should consider production as to produce information in order to lead the technological innovations that will provide increase in goods and service production.

To be a developing, self-esteemed and competitive society is possible with entegration to the world. No doubt, businessmen are the most dynamic factors in
this entagration.

The cooperation between the businessmen who considers raising production and contributing to the soical wealth as an ethical responsibility is a duty. The success of
such businessmen who considers their self-interests as together with the public's will lead the national development.

Handling of economic power by the right parties is only possible by activating all potential sources and making ‘production' the dominant principle. The main existence reason of ASKON that has been established in 1998 and has achieved many important activies since then, is to let this principle be prevalent all over
the society. Hence, ASKON pays attention to establish a nationwide network.
ABOUT US

ASKON is a civil society that gathers enterpreneurs around the common goals and social aims, and believing in economic and social development by this
construction.

ASKON is a cooperation of businessmen aiming national development by using resources in favour of the whole society.

ASKON is the effort of provide its its information, quality and experience in trade and industry to the people of our country.

ASKON is the principle of producing more than consuming, and considering production as an ethical responsibility.

ASKON is the ideal of bringing products and labels of our country in one of the leading trademarks.

ASKON is the belief of considering human rights and freedom as the main norms in trade as well as in the social life.

Justice and human rights are indespensable and it's the main principle for ASKON to fight against any injustice.

Free enterprise is the main factor for permanent economic development. ASKON is the consistency of terminating all difficulties against free market
economy.

ASKON is the common ideal and willing power put for our economy and society.

OUR MAIN PRINCIPLES

The principles we, as ASKON have should be owned by all actors in economy and business.

1-COMMERCIAL ETHICS AND HONESTY
Commercial ethics can not be considered as saparate from general ethical rules. Any kind of unfair profit or competition is against the ethical norms. Trust can not be built without honesty, transperancy and morality.

2-FREEDOM
No enterprise in favour of commercial rules and laws can be restricted. The main dynamics of a society are entire democracy, commercial and economic freedom; and
hence, free enterprise.

3-VIRTUE
A businessmen or an enterpreneur should be virtious as good and bad is as important as profit and loss or succes and fail. Getting wealthy against the interests
of the society can not be acceptable.

4-QUALITY
Quality is not only an economic concept for us; quality is an unavoidable consequence of the respect to the consumers as considering each as a human.

5-CONSUMPTION WITHOUT WASTEFUL
Wasteful is the beginning of moral degeneration in a society. Trying to raise consumption by making people to waste demolishes the social balance. The main
criteria of development in an economy is being a production oriented society, not consumption oriented. It's possible to strenghten the economy by using the
sources feasibly.

6-FAIR INCOME DISTRUBITON
Wealthy to be gained by a small minority leads huge gaps between classes that threats the peace in a society. Economic development should serve the whole
society, instead of serving a minority. Encouraging a solidarity between enterpreneurs is a means to balance the income distrubition between the regions.

OUR GOALS

Human is the most valuable resource, and the most respected goal is to serve the human being. Hence, as a businessmen association, the aims of ASKON are all
in favour of human.

ASKON has classified its aims in two groups as to be human oriented and economy oriented.

HUMAN-ORIENTED GOALS:

1- Justice is the main criteria for a healty economic structure. ASKON aims to make this principle effective by each of its members.

2- Providing equal opportunity is so important in order to encourage free enterprise.

3- Building and contributing to equity in relations between employers and employees.

4- Supporting industrial education in order to compensate the need of qualified employees in the sector.

5- Widening the understanding of neccessity of human health in both production, consumption and business organization.

6- Making social security applied all institutions.

7- Contributing to the efforts through constructing arule of law state.

8- Raising the sensitivity through general rights and freedoms.

ECONOMY-ORIENTED GOALS

1- Expanding the production society term to the whole country and raising production.

2- Constructing a stable development model that will consider the balance between human, enviroment and economy by means of perpatual development principle.

3- Contributing the goverments in constructing the economic policies.

4- Contributing to the free market economy for getting more stable in our country.

5- Struggling through construction of economic policies that would raise the production and employment.

6- Supporting SME's (Small and Medium Enterprises).

7- Contributing to increase in export, switching the foreign trade balance in favour of our country.

8- Emphasizing ‘quality' in production and making it dominant principle for stable achievements.

9- Tempting research and development activities for acquisition of competetive advantage.

10- Strenghtening the belief that the strategic investments should be handled by national will of power.

11- Accelerating privatization of state owned enterprises.

12- Taking necessary steps throug construction of astrong financial structure.

13- Regulating the relations kwith IMF and World bank in favour of our country and developing convenient systems and structures for stoc exchange, insurance
and banks.

14- Contributing to build a new tax system providing fair distribution and a stable structure.

15- Developing programmes, making researches through the most advantageous entegration to the world.

OUR MISSION
ASKON considers the idea of expanding democracy and human rights domination throughout the society as a main principle, also believing that businessmen are
the leading group of social and economic development.

The constitutional perspective of ASKON is building legal and institutional infrastructure of free market economy in order to prevent unfair competition and
monopoly. It considers developing new projects and technologies through increase of competetive power as a responsibilty for everyone.

Regional and class development is an indicator of unstable economic growth at all. Hence, tempting nationwide enterprise and development by usefull projects is one of the main missions of ASKON.

To sum up, the mission of ASKON is building a virtious society and economy against the understanding of development causing social and economic degeneration.

PROFILE OF MEMBERS
Our association is composed of the businessmen mostly functioning in ‘stanbul. Organization activites in Anatolia is carried out, but not completed yet.

Sectors that our members are dealing with:

Textile, construction, automotive-spare parts, machine-spare parts, consumer durables, electrics-electronics, leather-shoes, finance, jewelery, sanitary and healt products, metal-chemistry, iron-steel, press, packing, tourism, foreign trade, enviromental service, consultancy, and other service sectors.

Our members function in all areas such as manifucturing, production, marketing, import-export and transportation in regards with their business.

They work with several regions in the world as well as in the domestic market. Main partners abroad are especially neighbour counties, the Balkans, African,
EU countries and USA.

The important amount of our members are located in ‘stanbul, and the rest 275 are in other centers in
Anatolia.

Our members are handling an approximate amount of 2,5 billion dollars of capital. Besides, they are employing around 125 thousands employees.

Our short term aim is owning trade offices in several centers in the world.
SOME OF OUR STUDIES
Annual Economic Report
ASKON Bulletin
ASKON Monthly Economic and Cultural Bulletin
Sectoral Bulletins (Construction, Textile, Foreign Affairs)

JOURNAL REPORTS
We arrange regular journal reports regarding the current events in order to explain the views and attitudes of ASKON towards the developments.

IMPORTANT MEETINGS
We arrange informative meetings with authorities in order to clarify the important cases for public opinion.

BUSINESS GUIDES
EDUCATIONS: Our members prepare educational programmes
regarding several issues through the current
requirements. ( E.g: export seminar, ISO 9001 seminar,
leadership seminar, auctioning law seminar, etc.)

BUSINESS TRIPS ABROAD
Providing commercial entegration with the world by organizing business trips to various countries for the members. Before the trip, a detailed briefing is given
regarding the related country in our association center.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
The studies through constructing a broad in scope research and development unit (R&D) is carried out. At the moment, we have a research group arranging studies
in several areas. In this perspective, an offered plan called ‘Our Future Guarantee' has been presented to the government. Specific issues are dealth with through the needs of our members.

FOREIGN PURCHASING
R&D searchs, finds and classifies the foreign business demansd monthly and report them to the members by
e-mail.

FAIR INFORMATIONS
All domestic and foreign fairs are classified every two months and the members are informed by e-mail.

ECONOMIC BRIEFINGS
Weekly briefings are arranged to the board regarding current economic and political developments.