Osman Yıldırım, Chairman of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who made the opening speech of the Board of Presidents Meeting organized by the Sivas Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, “As you know during the visit of our President, Sivas has a common demand. I also know your individual support for other Organized Industrial Zones to be included in the scope of attraction center incentives. I also know your institutional support. We thank you especially for your support regarding the meeting of our chamber president with our President. I believe that after the election, we will include other Organized Industrial Zones of Sivas within the scope of attraction center supports.” said.
Speaking afterwards, Sivas Mayor Hilmi Bilgin said, “During our 5-year term as Mayor, we have never been dissatisfied with participation, transparency and accountability. Because we use public budget. Bayt al-mal is entrusted to us. For this reason, we need to serve by considering priority and efficiency in public investments. The resources are clear, the needs are many. These types of meetings we are in today are really important for the city in order to manage resources correctly, use them correctly, and most importantly, determine the priority correctly. It is actually a free, contributing, risk-reducing, de facto consultancy role for the Mayor, politicians, and those working on behalf of the public. Therefore, we provide participation here. “We demonstrate both accountability and transparency.” he said.
Mayor Bilgin said, “In our 5-year management approach, we have put forward a municipality approach that should be present in every event of the city. We are legally subject to law no. 5393. We must carry out our actions in accordance with that law. We are subject to various inspections, but by presenting a solution-oriented, "how can we do it" approach before saying no, if the city has a problem at some point, there may be a problem in the organized industry, an investor may also have a problem. It may also be the case that any neighborhood in the city is expecting a problem in the field of education. This could also happen if there is a problem with access to healthcare. In this understanding, we need to be at every point, everywhere, in every area, reaching every part of the city, seeing the municipality as the capillaries in the body. At this point, we became the Mayor with the understanding that we need to solve this problem in consultation with the relevant public administrations and non-governmental organizations. We were never offended by this, we were never wrong, when we carried out a project that concerned the city by sharing it with the relevant authorities and the public, we put forward a correct project and prevented that project from being discussed. As an example, we organized the 4 September Square instead of the Old Army House. While making the square arrangement, we met with every segment of the city. We organized a monument as 4 Days Square for Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's stay in Sivas for 108 days during the September 108 Congress. We consulted with our teacher Necip, who has worked the most on this subject, wrote a book and specialized in this subject. After all, we hosted the establishment of a state. We are a city that founded the state, and we are building a square in its name. This is not what Hilmi Bilgin says, what Ahmet says, or what Osman Yıldırım says. We said, "Whatever needs to happen, let's consult with the experts without any offence, find the right one and do it." In line with this understanding, the right services have emerged.” said.
Mayor Bilgin said, “If this nation has supported us for 22 years and given us the authority to serve the nation and the city, we can do our job more meticulously, work harder, think better, with the right planning and the right strategy, not only the next election, not today, but also the success of Sivas.” It gives us the responsibility to work on planning the future of the country, 10 years, 50 years, 100 years from now. We work with this meticulousness. For this reason, we did not hesitate to take responsibility. So it's out of our hands. If necessary, we put our bodies under the responsibility and determined to solve the chronic problems of the city. We believe that as managers, everyone here is a manager, and a manager who is afraid of being criticized will never be able to lead the way. Because every will, every decision has a risk. Every decision you make is a risk, but if you plan this risk correctly, determine a correct strategy, think carefully about the pros and cons and look ahead, you will bear this risk. We have never, ever been happy to take risks. We did not mind expressing our will. "We did not hesitate to tell the truth, even at the risk of being criticized." he said.
Referring to the demands of the Board of Presidents, Mayor Bilgin said, “Our President presented us with homework. Together with our Group Chairman, Sivas Deputy Abdullah Bey, I hope that some of the demands here, both locally and in general, are related to the municipality, some are related to the central government, but they are appropriate demands in our understanding of management. Because, as the Mayor of this city, we see ourselves as responsible for solving every problem of this city. The environment of the high-speed train station is a very important issue... Our new TCDD General Manager came on Sunday last week regarding the pedestrian traffic and parking lots in the equipment areas around the station. We talked about this. I hope we will demolish the place where PTT is located. We also agreed with our TCDD General Manager that the empty space will create a living space that will serve the high-speed train. We also told our President Abdullah. We will solve this problem quickly after the election. Our project is ready for the urgent restoration of the lodgings and for them to become a living space, an art street, a region where different activities can be held, and a region that will be revitalized with commerce for our fellow citizens who come by high-speed train or those who will go there. The budget is ready, we plan to create a living space there quickly. The Northern Ring Road has entered the agenda of our government. It was declared by our President himself in the City Square. Hopefully, it will be up to us to follow it from now on. Starting from April, we will pass this zoning revision and fulfill the required request. Facilitation in the urban transformation process. When we took office 5 years ago, the most important problem of this city was the question of what will happen to the Old Industry. It is not on anyone's agenda today. This is a good thing, it turns out that we are doing the right thing. Because the city saw this, we solved the old industrial problem. We attach importance to increasing green areas and sports areas on our journey with the vision of green Sivas. We are making great efforts to create both recreation areas and areas for sports in these recreation areas, both in the city center and in different areas. At the Green Sivas point, we attach importance not only to the new regional park and public garden, but also to the afforestation of existing boulevards and streets. We decided to build the National Garden to be built in Numune Hospital and 27 June Park, with the support of the ministry, and we finished it. We named it 100th Year National Garden. Let it be a gift to the 100th anniversary of the Republic. In the Kızılırmak project, the ownership of 2 million square meters of area has now passed to the Municipality with the zoning application. The project has reached the implementation phase. "Hopefully, we will activate it step by step this term, and if necessary, put it in a build-operate model and share it with the public when we announce the project." he said.
