Türkiye's 11th Business Ethics Summit in Istanbul discusses trust economy and humane finance

Türkiye's 11th Business Ethics Summit, organized by İGİAD with AA as its Global Communications Partner, was held in Istanbul under the theme "Trust Economy and Humane Finance." Speakers emphasized that ethical conduct can become lasting not only through individual choice but also through institutional structures that support it.

The 11th Türkiye Business Ethics Summit, organized this year by the Turkish Economic Enterprise and Business Ethics Association (İGİAD) under the theme "Trust Economy and Humane Finance," was held in Istanbul. At the summit, where Anadolu Agency (AA) served as the Global Communications Partner, participants discussed how trust could be rebuilt in the economy and how the financial system could place people at its center.

Speaking at the summit, İGİAD Chairman of the Board Hüseyin Akça said that people from all segments of society must act with awareness and responsibility regardless of their position, describing this not as a choice but as an obligation. "Even when it goes against our interests or is inconvenient for us, we must call what is right right and what is wrong wrong," Akça said, noting that wrongs become normalized over time when the responsibility to remind people of what is good and right weakens.

İGİAD Yönetim Kurulu Başkanı Hüseyin Akça zirvede konuşuyor

"We must uphold merit"

Akça said the fundamental responsibilities of businesspeople should be shaped around the principles of reliability, honesty and justice. "We must be reliable; we cannot deceive. We cannot reach for what is not rightfully ours. We must be fair. In our businesses, in politics and in the bureaucracy, we must uphold competence and merit," he said. Akça added that they would continue pursuing humane finance and the principle of fairly sharing halal earnings.

"A more ethical economic order"

Prof. Dr. Erkan Erdemir, chairman of the Summit Organizing Committee, recalled that in previous years the summit had addressed various aspects of business ethics, from education to production and from public administration to law. "For years, our focus has centered not only on how we can establish more ethical businesses, but also on how we can build a more ethical economic order," Erdemir said. He emphasized that it was now necessary to discuss how trust could be established as one of the founding principles of economic life and the responsibilities of financial institutions toward people.

Zirve Düzenleme Kurulu Başkanı Prof. Dr. Erkan Erdemir

Prof. Dr. Mehmet Asutay, a faculty member at Durham University, said that financial systems had been shaped by an approach that did not place people at the center, while ethical values and human psychology had been overlooked in economic decision-making processes. "Institutional structures must be in place for ethics to be decisive," Asutay said, adding that appropriate institutional arrangements were essential for ethical conduct to be sustainable.

Photos: AA

Türkiye's 11th Business Ethics Summit in Istanbul discusses trust economy and humane finance