The congress held with a historical responsibility; It brought together nearly 400 competent national and international economists, experts and academics, financial market experts, other actors of the economy, members of the press and participants who are interested in the subject, who make economic evaluations with a scientific vision. All relevant reference authorities from Turkey were also represented in the congress and the sessions were followed institutionally.
As a result of the Forum, the following determinations & recommendations were made and it was decided to bring them to the attention of all relevant authorities and the public:
- It has been determined that today's world is full of challenges in many areas; It has been emphasized that factors such as epidemic, migration, climate change, poverty, lack of job security and poor quality working environment reveal the weaknesses of global capitalism. From this point of view, it has been evaluated that this interesting period we are going through has accelerated the digital transformation that has already started, and that we are now at the beginning of an irreversible road. It has been determined that the global Covid-19 epidemic has transformed production with the spread of technologies such as "artificial intelligence" and "internet of things", which are groundbreaking with digital transformation. While the future of production is being shaped by these dynamics at an unprecedented speed, it has been determined that fields such as robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data have become a part of our business life.
- Congress determined that humans and automation needed to be transformed simultaneously in order to create added value, and it was concluded that digitalization should be blended with human skills. Because with digitalization and automation, some jobs will be lost and reduced. On the other hand, new jobs will inevitably emerge, such as digital ethics officer, industrial big data scientist, robotics specialist, digital mentor. The most wanted profiles in the manufacturing sector soon; robotics engineers, big data experts, artificial intelligence programmers, information technology experts, multi-channel software developers, cyber security experts. Through these radical transformations in the productive forces; The most important emphasis of Congress is the necessity of rethinking the economics discipline, reviewing its basic concepts, updating the practical designs and economic policies in parallel with the changing world.
- New working methods such as rotational work, invoice-based work, collaborative work and on-call work have emerged, for the first time in business life, there are 4-5 different generations at the same time, they work together, and this situation (especially the use of artificial intelligence in addition to human intelligence) has increased productivity. Was considered to have a positive effect on productivity. It has been determined that artificial intelligence-based systems enable faster execution, operational capability and correct work, as well as enabling processes that radically change the way labor is used in production processes. It has been determined that this situation's imposition of changes in existing skills will create a basis for social formations that accelerate labor processes and change capital structures and accumulation. In the coming period, as individuals and societies, we must change our role to acquire new professions, and acquire and acquire competencies. In terms of economic theories, just like Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" was published 245 years ago; It has been evaluated that we live in a period that paves the way for the re-study of the definition of human nature, the economic and the moral, the interaction of non-economic factors and the economy. This finding is especially important for developing countries.
- The 21st century has seen two major World Wars. The emergence of conflicts of interest among the imperialist powers while plundering unprotected countries, the ambition for hegemony and the methodical individualism based on the definitions of greedy, egoistic people as the maintainer of such a world have led to the orientation of economic dynamics. Today, however, it has become clear that a single economic system, an economic model suitable for all, an application that can be applied to all nations without time, space and alternatives are not possible. It has become more evident that each nation seeks to develop an economic method inspired by its own culture. The Congress determined that these developments pose serious challenges especially for the discipline of economics; that the generally accepted orthodox economic approach has entered a period that has lost its validity, it emphasized that, starting with the questioning of the appropriateness of the mathematical models used by neo-classical economics, a period in which the basic building blocks and surreal assumptions were questioned began.
- It is not possible for a nation that cannot put forward new views for humanity, and a society that cannot find a unique orientation, to keep up with the developments provided for all humanity. The factors underlying the most important "civilization" problem encountered today are; lack of love for “justice, human, nature“, alienation, commercialization and commodification, and conspicuous consumption. Human values, changing according to the new socio-political environment of the age, can arise from their cultural soil, - for example, from the Ahi-order system- the conjuncture that could make it possible to experience alternative structures and formations was discussed at the Congress. However, beyond the search for a utopian system, this should be realized in a fiction that is grounded and based on the achievements of human wisdom, formulated around concrete inferences, without forgetting the decisiveness of the economic infrastructure in the final analysis, in which the decisions taken should go parallel to this understanding. For the new understanding to be successful, national and cultural values as well as universal should be taken as a basis. If there is no justice with human love and does not set durable foot on the land, it is emphasized once again that the economic structures that will emerge in parallel with the robotized transformation of production in the not too distant future are full of unavoidable and ethical dangers for humanity.
- Diplomacy is the most appropriate tool for the state to ensure its effectiveness in the international arena. The benefits of technological developments in communication facilitated diplomacy and expanded the scope of diplomacy. “Economic Diplomacy“ should be introduced to regulate international trade in economic relations and to shape environmental policies. Active guidance of non-state actors in decision-making processes should also be accepted. Conducting multilateral negotiations will enable the state to play a role in effective fields in economic diplomacy. Turkey has entered all international economic institutions such as the G20 and OECD with intense diplomacy efforts. It should be ensured that global stakeholders benefit from the richness of thought and behavior that will be created by enriching the use of economic diplomacy with domestic contributions, including non-economic contributions, and covering areas such as moral stance, sharing, and solidarity.
- It is insufficient to deal with the issues within the framework of "modernization" in economic development. Describing them with the understanding of secularization and nation-state will add a broad framework. Modern economics is capitalism; capitalism, on the other hand, emphasizes the interests of individual people and is based on self-interested human acceptance. The principle that human needs are unlimited and that they must be met with limited resources is based on the "exploitation at home and abroad" system of capitalism. This order of exploitation has reached the limits of its transformative and enriching dimensions by creating an unsustainable world, approaching the end of nature-human alienation and commodity fetishism. Economic thought should also be active for alternative arrangements; inquiries should continue "until there are no stones left to turn".
- In countries where human rights are underdeveloped, poor working standards make workers less happy. Alienation of man from man, a man from nature, and the estrangement of the sexes from each other are among the main problems. Overconsumption alienation is observed in recent studies. The system sought must be one that does not alienate people from their essence. This system; There should be a system that takes people out of the grip of overproduction and consumption and builds them to activate need-based production processes. It is necessary to reorganize the production structure by directing it to sectors that will provide social benefit. One of the most important things to pay attention to is to ensure that the economic structures, which are modeled on the definition of individualism and human being egoist and self-interested, are reviewed from the perspective of alienation criticism and social solidarity. At this point, from other areas that take human life into account; support should be sought for guiding expansions from morals, religion, culture, tradition, customs, and traditions.
- Production systems; after being active in certain processes in the changing world, it transforms the previous model by including and blending it, and the social and social life changes simultaneously with it. The capital-based economic system, which has been going on for nearly 250 years, is coming to an end. Especially in the last 50 years (from 1971 to the present), monetization and financialization have accelerated globally. Due to the problems arising from the system's dynamics, it has been determined that the money (capital) economy and centralized large-scale production models have started to leave their place to the information economy (data, data economy) and digital money, which is a new production system based on the information and human capital in digital environments.
- The way to understand this transformation is to analyze and understand the historical cycles of the economy. Examining the cyclical processes of the economy should be one of the first steps to understanding and interpreting the current situation. The world is in a deepening economic crisis behind the scenes. After a financial collapse; The prices of commodities such as gold, silver, and Bitcoin have been rising rapidly in recent years. In times of crisis, it is important to determine that the possession of these assets by the public has made up for their lost purchasing power. The fact that these commodities are solid money and are seen as lifelines in the event of a systemic crisis -as has happened many times in history - is also noteworthy in terms of ensuring the perpetuation of the aforementioned rotten system.
- The current crisis; is expected to lead to the redefinition of currency, the issue of their virtual currencies, and the rapid departure from the reserve currency, the US dollar. Thus, it is foreseen that the information economy with the renewed form of money will change the economic order. The world can evolve from a world where money is unipolar to a multipolar, independent, and national currency world. This, in turn, is likely to result in changes and restructuring of everything from the economy to trade, politics, social life, and even the geographical boundaries of many countries. This situation creates a situation that paves the way for global redesign through economic models and triggers the development of new imaginations as proof that an alternative world is possible. At this point, the market bubbles caused by the unlimitedly printed money after each crisis has become quite sensitive and unstable. The resulting financial bubble has exceeded the level of 1 quadrillion dollars globally. In terms of production, the real asset equivalent is approximately one-tenth. That is, the debt created by the loan is not repayable at current values and is like a time bomb.
- According to the 200-year course of patents, the number of patents obtained primarily in electrical technologies is increasing, which is an example of where to invest. The relationship between patents and economic growth has been studied recently. The relationship between economic growth and development and innovations is not destructive but a step-by-step innovation. This creates a new branch of economic growth. For example, when the concept of the step-by-step invention is handled over the "telecommunications" sector, it will be seen that the codes in the infrastructure of today's video calls are the source.
- The growth model by generating knowledge will be more useful in developing countries. Turkey is also included in this group. Growth by purchasing technology provides limited economic growth. Buying technology can mean a tacit admission of backwardness. It is necessary to work on the investment made in the knowledge and the people who will produce the knowledge.
- Most of the world's population lives in middle-income countries. This situation causes low-income countries to be deprived of the technological inventions of high-income states. However, countries such as Turkey, which have a young population, have the opportunity to overcome this situation with the more active participation of their young population in the economy. It is seen that the states that fall into this trap are trying to get rid of it with different prescriptions. The spread of the weights of the sectors is one of the most important factors in this regard.
- The increase in the credit volume of the banks provides an increase in investment and production throughout the country and plays a serious role in the growth of the country's economy. Consumer loans provide an increase in GDP and ensure growth. It is necessary to direct the distribution of loan funds to growth-based production-themed sectors and to ensure greater economic growth in the long run.
- The relationship between the state and the business world is one of the determinants of the economy. Political crises affect the economy, as well as fluctuations in the economy and business world. The mistakes made in the bureaucracy seriously affect the economy. As a result of Turkey's recent interest rate policies, the Turkish Lira has lost value. However, the Turkish economy is largely indexed to the dollar and such policies are not sustainable on the macroeconomic axis.
- The necessity of concentrating labor in productive sectors; requires the establishment of a long-term education system and the training of a labor force suitable for this structure and ensuring that the general productivity of labor is increased through inter-sectoral technology transfers.
- The pandemic has a magnifying effect on inequalities between countries. Emerging markets and low-income fragile economies face a riskier situation with the epidemic. These countries have relatively weaker health systems. They are heavily dependent on the sectors most affected by the epidemic, such as tourism and commodity exports, and of course external financing.
- Economic, financial, and engineering-based processes can now be carried out on a large scale by obtaining the necessary information from huge libraries of intelligent functions. Thus, traditional human activities in the economy are also on the verge of extinction. In nearly every two decades after 1970, the digital revolution takes a new shape and creates a different structure in the economy: 1st period 1970-1990 "integrated circuits, increasing computing power", 2nd period 1990-2010 "connection of digital processes", 3rd-period “Development of smart sensors, artificial intelligence, machine learning“ after 2010. With each digital revolution, a series of new technologies emerge, causing characteristic changes in the economy.
- Thanks to the first digital change; engineers can use computer-aided design programs, company managers can monitor their stocks in real-time, geologists can identify ground layers and calculate changes in oil reserves. With the entry of modern fast computers into our world, the economy received the serious computer and computation support for the first time in history.
- Through the second digital change, computers; interconnected in local and global networks with the help of telephone, fiber-optic, and satellite. The internet has become a commercial entity, internet services have emerged, and the cloud has made available shared computing resources. Suddenly, everything speaks to everything else.
- With the third digital change and transformation, something that seems insignificant at first glance has entered our lives: Inexpensive smart sensors with widespread use; radar and laser sensors; gyroscope sensors; magnetic sensors; blood-chemistry sensors; pressure, temperature, flow, and humidity sensors; By being linked to wireless networks, it has begun to report the presence of objects or chemicals, or the current state or position of a system, or changes in environmental conditions. Intelligent sensors have signaled the beginning of a new era by allowing machines to communicate with each other and humans with machines. Intelligent sensors provide continuous data flow and for experts who know how to use them, meanings will be deduced and new relationships will be established oceans of data are emerging.
- The increase in relations between states has brought about an increase in competition in many different fields, including the economy. While everything was achieved with military power in the period before and during the 2nd World War, this phenomenon left its place in the acquisition of everything by economic power. The increase in the variety and volume of economic activities at the local and global level in the 21st century necessitates looking at the economy and its derivatives from a wider perspective and different perspectives. Therefore, in today's global establishment, every country; focuses on the concept of "economic intelligence", which consists of the processes of accessing economic information about its potential rival, processing this data, interpreting and taking precautions, and which has a place in the literature as one of the original intelligence fields. Therefore, today's economic intelligence activities carried out in different countries through official intelligence agencies and private organizations towards rival countries should be placed in an institutional framework.
- Access to accurate information in information activities is a necessary condition for reducing fear and anxiety. If there is concrete and healthy information at hand, it is possible to produce alternative solutions and to get rid of fears and anxieties. In this context, the main purpose of economic intelligence is to create and maintain an environment of trust. Of course, as long as fear and anxiety exist, intelligence will continue to be indispensable for states and international organizations. The question of to what extent Turkey acts as an independent state or how strong it requires serious informational activities. To answer this question, it is necessary to put forward a conceptual framework that will enable us to follow the changes in the world. To carry out such theoretical studies and to contribute to the power configuration and configuration management that can be created in a country like Turkey; which is struggling with the threat of Covid-19, multi-faceted multifunctional domestic and foreign terrorist threats, and irregular migration wave threats, experts, academics and It has become a task and a mission for strategists. Turkey; cannot construct independent state reflexes without constructing an economic conceptual framework suitable for its social, historical, geopolitical conditions and environmental realities.
- Evaluating, thinking, planning, and implementing are thinking exercises that are also valid for corporate executives, economists, and bankers. The main duties of economic intelligence specialists are; It is to analyze the possible developments in the economy and the financial movements (sudden disproportionate increase in the currency exchange rate, inflation, inability to maintain the balance of payments, etc.) the assumption and risk algorithm, and to generate the necessary intelligence that will guide them and convey them to the decision-makers. In this context, the state; establishing an economic intelligence agency in its relevant institutions and working in coordination with certain financial institutions, NGOs, chambers of commerce, industry and profession; evaluating the activities of foreign companies and investors; it will also have a “playmaker“ role in determining the policies towards them. In addition to open sources, the economic intelligence office will be able to determine important decisions regarding large tenders, customer research, international investment and trade negotiations and secret agreements of countries, and most importantly, economic policies, with various intelligence methods and techniques. In addition, it is essential to establish an economic intelligence board consisting of business people, company executives, journalist-authors, lawyers, bankers, economists, relevant bureaucratic representatives from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministries of Treasury and Finance, and private analysts.
- While the world population is approaching 8 billion, the volume of international trade is growing. According to the calculations of the World Trade Organization, the weight of production and consumption in the world is shifting to the Asia Pacific region. China, which took over the leadership in this region from Japan years ago, now faces the world leader USA. According to calculations, the leadership of world trade will pass to China by 2030 at the latest.
- Under the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) Agreement, countries will gradually reduce customs between them, through common trade rules, liberal globalization will be paved. The RCEP agreement covers areas such as international trade, services, investments, communications, electronic commerce, intellectual property rights, and copyrights. With this agreement, it is stated that “it is an indication that the countries in the region want to strengthen economic liberalization and integration“. The RCEP Agreement provides mutual facilitation for countries in the trade of goods and services and intellectual property rights. Although India, the second-largest country in the region by population, withdrew from the negotiations in 2019, the RCEP countries officially registered in the Agreement that their doors are open to India. Five of the RCEP countries are major economies that are also within the G20 countries. These; Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea.
- Threats also bring opportunities. To make our country attractive to Chinese and EU investments, it would be beneficial to introduce incentives for the development of production and trade partnerships in RCEP countries. With the Belt and Road Initiative, it is possible to fill containers on trains and ships from China with Turkish export goods on return. To the countries on the way back to China; It is strongly considered that "the Chinese threat can be turned into Turkish success" by exporting Turkish goods to the Central Asian Turkish States with these trains and to Pacific countries with these ships.
- Despite the potentially conflicting border disputes surrounding it, China is signing economic partnerships at various levels, putting commercial interests first. To achieve great economic power by following similar economic policies, Turkey has to increase its production and bring its place in world trade to a strong level. According to this; It should participate in international formations that will pave the way for regional cooperation with its "economy first" policy, or it should create these formations itself.
10 December 2021, Istanbul
