We are, once again, celebrating the International Women’s Day. I think to myself why there is a special day for the women, why such a day was needed, and I want to share my opinions.

We live in a rapidly changing world. We are in time that requires us to go beyond the borders, to work as a world citizen, rather than a citizen of a single country, and to communicate with each other in order to be successful. Talking about a global market, global leadership, and global responsibility, we now know that we cannot avoid globalization. I believe that we must benefit from the big potentials, creative minds and all the strong aspects we have. This is where women have a great role to play.

Women are already very successful in their management roles in family life. We know that now we need to encourage women to carry their experiences to wider horizons. Anyone who has demonstrated success in a field is now ready to set sail for other successes. On the other hand, we see that our problems are becoming increasingly complex. And we need different, creative ideas to solve complex problems. Women have important roles here again, because their problem-solving methods are different and quite creative. We cannot be competitive unless we benefit from them correctly.

Therefore, while celebrating Women’s Day, once again I would like to underline that due to their differences and diversities, we would all benefit greatly from integrating more women into social life and business world. What I mean is not just the women with a career, but all the women.

Taking the opportunity, I sincerely celebrate 8 March International Women’s Day.

I was in Germany recently. I was invited as a speaker to a meeting where the leaders of the largest SMEs all over the world would gather. They asked me questions about Turkey and the current situation. I told them about Turkey. Since the theme of the meeting did not cover political content, I tried to answer questions in an economic sense. I must say that Turkey is a great focus of attention. At this meeting, I witnessed it once more.

While assessing the situation in Turkey, rather than telling about the difficult times or existing problems, I wanted to put my thoughts on paper in a forward-looking, future-oriented manner. Actually, as a business person, I think that we should assess our country in this context and globalize out of this perspective. Of course, I am not saying we have no problems; we have challenges and problems, but we must focus on solving them. We owe a lot to Turkey and the future of Turkey and we have a responsibility. I think we should reflect our trust in our country to the outside world.

Life is a continuous exercise of problem solving

It would not be wrong to describe our present time as a “difficult period” for our country. In the short term, we may face some economic problems, but this does not change the fact that Turkey’s future in the medium-long term is bright.

Considering the future of countries in the medium and long term is a much more accurate approach. Turkey is a strong country. We have a young population that is open to innovative thinking and has a relatively high level of education. Our average age is 29. Again, we have a robust financial system built upon the lessons learned from a crisis. And the growth or potential of a country cannot be measured by its performance in one year only. Fluctuations may occur from time to time, not only in Turkey, but anywhere in the world. The important thing is to confront the problems and overcome them without ever being pessimistic about our future, and without forgetting “what we actually are and what we are capable of” or “who we are” as the old saying goes.