Impact Investing Advisory Board (EYDK) Vice President Seçil Yıldız and Board Member Hale Özsoy Bıyıklı attended the “Future Investment Themes” Panel as speakers within the scope of the 3rd Portfolio Management Summit organised by Turkish Institutional Investment Managers’ Association on December 15. The panel was moderated by Prof. Dr. Güler Aras, Integrated Reporting Türkiye Network (ERTA), Founding Chair and YTU Center for Finance, Corporate Governance and Sustainability(CFGS) Founding Director, Funda Uyar Geneci, Capital Markets Board of Türkiye (CMB), Head of Institutional Investors Department, and Sami Aslanhan, Chairman of Kontrolmatik, were among the speakers.
Funda Uyar Geneci emphasised that sustainability has become crucial not only in the financial sector but in all areas, stating that the Capital Markets Board of Türkiye (CMB) aims to implement initiatives to encourage institutional investors to invest in this field, not just financial instruments. She mentioned ongoing efforts related to the Principle for Responsible Management and highlighted the need for organisations to enhance their capacity in this regard in the upcoming period. Sami Aslanhan, on the other hand, highlighted that green technologies, material science, communication technologies, and electrification will stand out in the future.
EYDK Vice-Chair Seçil Yıldız addressed impact investment, the history of it, the ongoing initiatives of EYDK, how impact investments will gain importance as the investment theme of the future, and the activities of Development Investment Bank of Türkiye (TKYB) in this field. She underscored that impact investments surpass sustainable investments by not only avoiding negative impacts but actively creating positive ones and highlighted that impact investments go beyond analysing financial risks, also considering various other risks. Yıldız emphasised that the ratio of disadvantaged groups to the total population in Turkey is 73% and that it is very difficult for investments made without considering these groups to be successful.
Seçil Yıldız said, “In order to accelerate the development of the impact investment ecosystem in Türkiye, Impact Investing Advisory Board strengthen its institutional structure under the legal status of EYDK Association this year and deepened it’s activities in the fields of Impact Investments, Impact Management and Measurement, Faith Based Investments and Place Based Impact Investments. As EYDK, we will accelerate our efforts to increase impact investments in our country and the world, to contribute to the welfare level of disadvantaged groups through inclusion, and to fulfil Türkiye’s net zero commitment . We invite all investors planning to invest in the impact field to join our association.”
EYDK Board Member Hale Özsoy Bıyıklı provided insights about the importance of impact investment, its market size and the steps taken by TURKVEN in the field of impact investment. She stated that the size of impact investments in the world exceeds 2 trillion dollars, and as EYDK, 1% of this is targeted for Türkiye. She emphasised that reporting and transparency are important for the expansion of impact investments, and said that investors now prefer to invest in companies that are sustainable and focus on impact.
Hale Özsoy Bıyıklı: “At the panel organised by the Turkish Institutional Investment Managers’ Association (TKYD), we talked about the investment themes of the future and the increasing importance of impact investments within them. We had the opportunity to explain our association, our goals and the progress we have made to our portfolio managers and industry stakeholders.” said and underlined that impact investments will come to the fore as an important theme of the future.