Within the scope of the Turkish BSEC Chairmanship-in-Office, the Special Board Meeting of BSEC Business Council held online on 10th of August 2023. Representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Türkiye attended the meeting.
Mr. Selçuk Akat, 64th Term Chairman-in-office of BSEC Business Council opened the meeting. He thanked Amb. Lazar Comanescu for his support to the business council since its inception. He also extended gratitude to Amb. Dimitrios Rallis for attending the meeting and for giving a motivational welcoming address. He expressed gratitude to all the countries of the Black Sea region for their collaboration with Türkiye after the devastating earthquake in February. He stated that he is planning a very active term for the board until the end of the year. He also introduced Mr. Kemal Kaptaner, the newly-appointed Secretary General of BSEC BC.
In his welcoming address H.E. Ambassador Dimitrios Rallis, Deputy Secretary General of the BSEC, assured that BSEC PERMIS will continue offering its full support for making the Business Council a success. He also informed that the BSEC PERMIS Secretary General Ambassador Comanescu has already decided to host temporarily at the BSEC PERMIS premises in Istanbul a technical office of the BSEC BC for the term of the Turkish Chairmanship.
In the second part of the meeting, Mr. Selçuk Akat presented a brief outlook of the trade and economic relations of the BSEC countries. In the context of the rising potential of the BSEC region, Mr. Akat shared that 20 years ago, the share of BSEC countries in global trade was just 3.2 per cent. He pointed out that it reached to 5.1 per cent in 2008 before the global financial crises and then went down recently to 4.4. per cent.
For the planned events of BSEC BC for the coming months, he briefly presented the 3 major events.
All participants shared their comments and views on the planned events.