INGEV participated in Brand Week’s session, “Refugees, Integration to Consumer Markets” on the 8th of November. Unilever Turkey board member / Turkey chairman of Global Compact Mustafa Seçkin, BİM Markets’ chief operating officer and executive committee member Galip Aykaç, and co-founder of More Design, Sima Al Kanawati, participated in the session on the latest situation of refugees, and their income sources and consuming markets. The session, moderated by INGEV chairman Vural Çakır, took place at the Turkish Airlines Inspiration Hall, the biggest hall of Brand Week festival. Some of the points from the session are summarized below:
Vural Çakır: “80 billion dollars left Syria because of the Syrian civil war as capital transferred to other countries. Although Turkey hosts the majority of expatriate Syrians in comparison to other hosting countries, the transferred capital to Turkey totals only 5 billion dollars. And in spite of the high level of migration, we should never allow xenophobia; social cohesion requires this approach.”
Mustafa Seçkin: “If we support inclusive life, we cannot ignore Syrians in Turkey who comprise 5 percent of the population. In the context of Unilever’s Embark project, mentors and mentees have changed their places and experts from out of the company have trained 13 CEOs of Unilever. As business world we should recognize the importance of the refugee issue.”
Galip Aykaç: “We face one of the world’s most important migrations. It is impossible for the state to overcome the problem alone. As private sector we should also take on responsibility. It is the reason why we work to meet the needs of Syrians. This shedding of blood and tears should end.”
