The 30th general meeting of Turkey’s Automotive Distributors Association (ODD) was held, Mustafa Bayraktar was reelected as head of the association
The 30th general meeting of Turkey’s Automotive Distributors Association (ODD) which shelters the number of 47 brands under its roof, held by the participation of Fatih Ciftci, Deputy Minister of Customs and Trade. The new administration and auditor members were elected at the meeting as well as evaluation of 2015 and expectations for 2016 were discussed. The general meeting held at Shangri- La Bosporus in Istanbul on 16th March. Since 1987 the foundation year of the ODD at the general meeting which is held every year, the election is conducted in every two years for the board and auditor members. The new chairman and members of the ODD were elected on 16th March. The opening speech of the meeting was delivered by Dr. Hayri Erce, General Coordinator of the ODD. Mustafa Bayraktar, Chairman of the ODD highlighted the foremost headlines of the sector by evaluating the year 2015. Bayraktar continued; “As know last year was quite intensive year, as we experienced two general elections besides we held Autoshow exhibition. Despite all challenges our sector sustained its growth. Having achieved the sales number of 1 million in the domestic market maybe did not make much more change in our life, but I consider it is a crucial threshold as an indicator of a strong market. In 2016, we guess the domestic market might be between 900-950 thousand units slightly under of last year.”
Emphasizing the need of the incentive and implementations in order to take the domestic market to the level of the countries which feature the global players in the automotive market, Bayraktar said, “When we look at the domestic market of the countries featuring the global players like the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Korea, we see that they have very big market units. It is possible to make stronger of Turkish automotive sector’s position in the global market which takes its power from a great and sustainable domestic market. We still lag behind much of Europe in the automobile ownership. Over 3 million vehicles are sold in Germany its population is extra only 4 million as the most crowded country of Europe. In France with 65 million population 2 million 200 thousand vehicles are sold, in Italy with 58 million population 1,5 million vehicles are sold per annum. Our country has a crucial strategic superiority regarding its position. Its current logistic structure should support both manufacturing and exports in the future, in a way to continue to respond the objectives of our sector, too. The steps should be taken to support the new investments.” Mustafa Bayraktar also highlighted the elder vehicle park problem was continuing gradually. He said, “According to the data from Turkish Statistical Institute, in 2011 the total vehicles were 11 million 700 thousand units of which 18 percent some 2 million units comprised of over 20-year old vehicles. At the end of 5 years later, the number of vehicles exceeded 15 million and according to the data of 2015, 23 percent of the total vehicles accounting for 3,5 million are over 20-year old. So, from now on there is a big need to the policies to serve to reinvigorate and renew our vehicle park without losing time. Even we kick off the works for refreshing old vehicles a long way is seen in front of us.” At the end of the general meeting of the ODD, Mustafa Bayraktar was reelected as the chairman of the association.
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