Leaders to discuss intellectual capitalism, Silk Road of energy

ISTANBUL

This file photo shows a session during last year’s summit. This year’s event kicked off with a gala yesterday in the evening.

The 18th Eurasian Economic Summit, organized by the Marmara Group Foundation, is once again ready to host statesmen and opinion leaders from 40 different countries until April 9, offering a unique platform to discuss the most heated issues of today’s world and the future.

The leaders will discuss the Silk Road, with “intellectual capitalism” sitting in the heart of the event as an umbrella for sessions on the economy, finance, energy and communication technologies.

In a special session, the president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, H.E. Marinko Cavara; the president of Montenegro, H.E. Filip Vujanovic; the president of Macedonia, H.E. Gjorge Ivanov; as well as the former presidents of Bulgaria, H.E. Petar Stopyanov; the Czech Republic, H.E. Vaclav Klaus; Estonia, H.E. Arnold Rüütel; Mongolia, H.E. Punsaalma Ochirbat; Moldova, H.E. Petru Lucinsky; Serbia, H.E. Boris Tadic; Slovenia, H.E. Danilo Türk; Latvia, H.E. Valdis Zatlers; and Romania, H.E. Emil Constantinescu and H.E. Ion Ilıescu, are among the honorary guests of the event, which will be attended by the 11th president of the Turkish Republic, Abdullah Gül.

The list of guests also includes 20 ministers, along with the representatives of 28 international organizations.

The summit will gather business missions from Turkey, Belarus, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Akkan Suver, the head of the Marmara Group Foundation, said while speaking during a joint conference with the President of Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporter Associations (IHKIB) Hikmet Tanrıverdi, famous fashion designer Nej and Secretary General of Marmara Group Foundation Dr. Fatih Saraçoğlu in Istanbul last month that Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek and Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu will also attend the summit.

The summit has turned into a prestigious symbol of unity, as it has been accepted in the Balkans, Caucasus, Europe and the Far East, Suver said.

“We would like you to know that we are putting high importance on the TANAP pipeline project between Azerbaijan and Turkey. TANAP is not just an economy or energy project, and because of that we are opening the floor for this with a session in our summit,” he said. 

Finance stands once again as one of the main topics of the two-day sessions at Istanbul’s WOW Hotel. The impact of the network economy on the financial system will be on table when key speakers meet to exchange ideas on how the gap between the financial system of the present and the past has grown.

Information technology, which has been the pioneer of several economic, social and cultural transformations while also making life smoother, will be evaluated comprehensively in this regard at the summit.

The organizers have attached great importance on the reconstruction of the Silk Road. They agree on its philosophy and believe the Silk Road is not only a project that builds commercial relations, but also creates positive effects on friendship between countries.

The Silk Road will connect the Pacific Ocean with the Baltic Sea and the Basra Gulf with the Indian Ocean. Experts will handle the Maritime and Land Silk Road topics during the event.