International economic event Bosphorus Summit starts in Istanbul

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – The 13th Bosphorus Summit, an annual international economic event, kicked off in Türkiye's commercial capital Istanbul on Thursday.

The two-day event, organized by the International Cooperation Platform (ICP), is being held under the main theme of "Great Transformation: Driving Forces of Global Change."

The meeting will discuss various topics, including the future of companies, investment opportunities in Türkiye, energy in the next decade, digitalization of money, and the food security.

The event hosts high-level visitors from 47 countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, the UK, France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Türkiye, with participation of ministers, academics, officials, and chairmen.

Talal Abu Ghazaleh, the ICP's honorary chair, said during the opening ceremony that there is no way that superpowers would sit together in the world.

"It's not easy to decide whatever the dollar will continue to be to be the human only global currency.

"And it's very difficult to understand what is the solution because we know that China has developed a global currency based on their view, not only Chinese currency," he said.

Ghazaleh asserted that the world will see a lot of chaos for trade and finance. "The war is on its way, this is a global war, this is the third world war, it is not like previous wars."

He said the world is changing and countries will not invade each other in this war.

"I hope it (the war) will come soon so that we can have world order or some peace and time to address the one most important threat to humanity, which is global climate change," he stressed.

Cengiz Ozgencil, the founder of the ICP, said the event aims to create a dialogue environment for global welfare and peace.

He said more than 100 speakers from 47 countries will discuss several topics in 23 sessions.

Rona Yircali, the head the ICP's Honorary Board, said the world is facing an unprecedented energy restriction, inflation and problem for accessing food.

Tahsin Ertugruloglu, the foreign minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), said: "I come from a country that supposedly does not exist or that it should not exist."

He said the Turkish Cypriots are seen as an ethnic minority and this situation serves no other purpose than to discriminate those people and to cause chaos and uncertainty.

"The reality is being two distinct nationalities' peoples on the same island, each with its own territory and state."