>>Hello and welcome to a special edition of Global Perspectives.

I'm David Dumke.

Today we're bringing you the second part of our three part series from the Bosphorus Summit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Just a reminder that the summit offers a platform from leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds to connect with the goal of making a positive impact on global challenges an business, politics and culture.

This week, we'll start off with the founder and chairman of the Bosphorus Summit, Cengiz Özgencil.

Congratulations on the 16th Bosphorus summit.

Tell us a little about this year's summit.

>>Thank you very much for your time this year.

Here from this year.

As you can see from this morning, the the summit this year was very busy and very active.

This year we're starting with over 23 panels.

We have 126 speakers this year from outside of Turkey and from Turkey.

And we have attendees from over 60 countries from.

>>And from these countries there are presidents, ministers, businessmen and princes, consulates, ambassadors as well.

And this was started very well.

And right now the time has passed 3:00 the both halls are very active.

Because for over 15 years what I want to make people feel lik when they come to Turkey is that this is a very serious summit that's not for, just, you know, the magazines and etc.

I want to show them that they talk about the economy and relevant subjects and do something to show them the seriousness.

Just for many years I've been with Delta corporation down here.

Since 9:30 this morning the next two rows that we have here, will be full of B2B conversations from the people, representatives of companies from South Africa which are meeting with Turkish representatives of companie in order to conduct B2B meeting.

Since 15 years, we'v been having these B2B meetings with the other companies that are attending and to our awarenes there have been agreements done that are worth about $2.7 billion.

I wouldn't want you to think that this is just a trade connection place.

I bring here people who have ideas and want to showcase their ideas and who are experts in the fields that they talk.

And I also want people to think that this place is an international platform which exchanges ideas.

As I mentioned a moment ago, the agreement that were done that are worth 2.7 billion dollars that happened by itself.

And I see and believe that today and tomorrow will be very busy again.

Even though this tires me this makes me very happy.

>>And it's a that' a good problem to have as we say being tired because the work and the success.

So a question I have is you came up with the idea for this summit originally, what gave you the thought that this was the time for Turkey to have a platform like this summit?

>>You've had successes on a business business basis, but you're also elevating Turkey' brand as an economic location.

Key global economic location.

>>I've been in the service sector for 48 years, when I was 25, 26 years old, right after I finished my university in Ankara I opened an office for myself.

When I opened my office I started printing out the first seminars and first magazines for the Turkish rooms for trade and markets, as we call it.

And after two years the Minister of Trade in Ankara called me and said, you're doing great things.

Why don't you do in the seminars in our magazines for our, trade?

Then I moved to Istanbul an I opened an advertising agency.

It's a very big advertising agency.

Of course, when I first started this, it was small, but became very big.

Then I was busy with advertising for 14 years.

I was, you know, there's a lot of power and money involved in advertising but I wasn't happy.

I'm a person that's happy with public relations.

Then I thought about can I hav the meetings that I was having when I first started business at international level?

I thought about it and I started the business 16 years ago.

While I was starting it, and before I start I made the research for about one and a half years and as Napoleon said before, if the world was a single state the capital would be Istanbul.

And then I thought to myself, why shouldn't I invite all the global leaders and impactful individuals to Istanbul?

Because a lot of the people before they have visited Istanbul.

Even though I have meeting here, Istanbul is just not about meetings in the hotel.

Istanbul is a magical and a beautiful place.

And not only do I have the meetings, I also show them around the Bosphorus and Istanbul.

I leave a good impression on them of Istanbul.

After me there's a lot of people who replicated me and I really liked it.

And I said to myself, I' definitely on the right track.

>>Imitatio is the highest form of flattery.

They say.

>>Yes.

>>So I want to ask you're talking 60 different countries are participating this year.

What areas in the world have shown more interest in Turkey in recent years?

>>In the first 7 to 8 years, we are focused and our invitees were more from the Balkan region.

Since they're our neighbors.

>>And because of our neighbors, more people from the Middle East and North Africa started attending.

And around 22 to 25 people or countries attended in the first, five years.

And on the sixth year, the Ministry of Energy, assists.

And also for the energy of the time.

On the dinner, I also had a live interview with the MTV news channel.

Was very powerful, which was broadcasted on different channels around Europe.

Now we suddenly, I think, more high of individuals from the from Europe.

And after our invitations a lot of people started, came to the summit to speak on before the pandemic on our 10th year, 82 countries attended the summit.

And on our - after seeing how many countries were attending this meeting, the even more courageous and on our 10th anniversary while we were cutting our 10th anniversary cake, I was also attending the cutting was the Prime Minister of Germany, Prime Minister of Nepal, Prime Minister of Spain and the president of the Northern Cyprus.

And as I said, this made me very courageous and i thought to myself how could we making even bigger on our eleventh and twelfth.

However, I would have never thought that there would be a pandemic in 2021.

I am very persistent.

I still, even though the pandemic happene I still did the summit, however, there were restrictions on flights and people were scared to see each other.

They were even scared to shake hands.

They want to do something that I couldn't.

I couldn't do that.

In 2021, I managed to do it on the March of 2021, even though there was, the pandemic at the March there was 550 people and the board of directors said before the meeting that don't do this meeting, nobody would come.

And you will be embarrassing.

As I said, I'm very persistent.

And I said that I do this meeting and I thought that people have missed the human interaction.

And I was right.

>>Congratulations on that.

I also want to ask you about American participation in the summit.

Would you like to see more, businesses and officials from the United States participat in the in the Bosphorus Summit?

>>I've been to the United States, and we made it into and thanks to, you know, the United States, really want people to come, American businessman and businesses to com to the united to the Bosphorus because Bosphorus Summit has many attendees from the Middle East as so that Saudi Arabia and Qatar, etc.

who might enjoy them.

>>The American businesses can have very powerful B2B meetings with the Middle East attendees, however, and this is not only restricted to the Middle East, there's Balkans that are our neighbors.

There's Asian attendees and there are very powerful business relationships can be established here.

>>Thank you for that explanation.

I wanted to ask just one final question but it has two parts and one are what are some of the concerns you you hear among the different participants from all over the world about the global economy?

And what are some of the opportunities that some of the positives you hear?

>>Well, I wil start answering your questions from the last thing I do from the opportunities.

The question is very, sector based.

However, Turkey used to be a very, very big player when it came to agriculture.

However that has changed because people who are in agriculture producing villages have moved on to different industries.

That has drained the culture industry.

As you heard the speech of the president who spoke to Gaza and to follow the show, the old factor is not people all wanting to work and not working in the agricultural sector.

It's also the climate change that's impacting the agriculture.

And they feel that if you continue on the same sector and we can see that the people in agriculture, business are struggling right now and the food business is impacted due to this.

However, when we look at this different, industry.

So that would be automotive sector and conservatives of the automotive sector.

We can see that the business is good.

And in the past, very, very important investments have been made into Turkey.

These investments of the defense industries have shined and the spotlight has been on them recently.

And the first tim that the private defense company in Turkey started purchasing defense factories, focused on defense in the outside of Turkey.

And they established a factory in America.

And in Turkey there's there's a change in different sectors because of that.

As as I mentioned, the agriculture sector is diminishing, is not coming in to help.

When you look at the automotive sector and the defense sector they're rising.

So there was a lot of discrepancy and difference in the sector because the service sector in in the tourism sector in Turke is in the spotlight in Europe.

Because Turkey has been developed as a country that follow the lead of Spain and France when it came to tourism.

However, the current the situation with the economy in Turkey also impacted the tourism sector.

So as I said, there's a lot of differences when it comes to different industries in Turkey and how the economy impacts them.

>>Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me today.

It's and it's a it's an honor to be here.

And it's it's great to hear more about the summit.

And we wish you the best of luck going forward.

I thank you very much as well, you came all the way here.

I hope we are a good host to you.

Thank you.

>>Thank you.

As I said earlier, the Bosphorus summit covers a wide range of international topics.

Our next discussion is with Hussam Abu-Isa, vic chairman of Salam International.

His focus at the summit was to demonstrate how philanthropic efforts are having a global impact in medicine and education.

So you've had a very successful business career, but you do spend a lot of time doing charity work.

And that's what we wanted to talk to you about today.

Tell us a little about your work, in particular in education and then in health care.

>>Okay.

First of all, I'm - I'm a retired person.

As per the our company policy with a publicly listed company called Salam International.

As I'm retired, I try to find what can I do get to give back to the society.

So during my working experience we were taking in.

Now we will have to give back to the society.

So I discovered that I have passion towards NGO works and an NGO in the NGO work.

I joined an organization called AmidEast.

It's a US based, NGO.

It's about 55 years old.

We have offices in 13 different Arab countries.

And AmidEas specialize in helping students in the Arab world, in the Arab world.

It was founded by a late ambassador at that time.

And this the mission also of this AmidEast is to create connectivity, connection, understandin between the Arab world and the and the United States.

So we have 13 offices around the world between Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, and in 13 different country, Arab countries.

And the board member in Lebanon and the board member also in Washington DC.

So in Washington, DC, our head office overlooks all those 13 companies.

And this one we help students to help the education to to help them with fully or partially, dependin on the budget, on the budgets.

We have to get education, we try to push them to study in the United State and come back to the Arab world, because we want to transfer of knowledge and education to to the Arab world.

We gain, what from what's good in the United States and implemented in the in the Arab world.

And we have been very successful.

At the same time, we do testing for the universities.

>>If I could ask, are most of the students who participate in these programs and get scholarships are they from economically disadvantaged?

>>Mostly.

95% the economically disadvantaged and then with because being economically disadvantaged, depending on the economy the economic disadvantage they have we pay between 25 to 100% depending on each case by case basis.

But they have to go through a lot of tests to prove their capability and then they are gaining.

So we don't take any students.

We take really well privileged students and their education and knowledge.

>>And those student that are inclined to give back.

You said if they-- >>95 so far 95%, the statistics we have, 95% came back to their own countries.

Very few, almost 5% stayed in the United States due to certain reason where the universities, because they are top, top, to notch, they wanted to keep them.

But 95% of our students, they came back to Lebanon, to Palestine, to Yemen, to Morocco, to the to whatever they belong to.

And we don't differentiate between, ethnic groups being Muslim or Christian or whatever it is.

It is on merit.

There's a test, there's a process.

Once they they pass the test and the process and the test, then they become eligible.

>>Tell me a little about the Mariam Foundation and your your work there.

>>Mariam Foundation.

It was founded in the in the occupied territories.

It was, the name Mariam is a is the sister, the younger sister of a of the founder who was at the at that time at the age of 16, and his sister passed away from cancer at the age of seven or nine, I can't remember.

Then he said he took it on himself that he want to dedicate his life to helping cancer cancer patients.

When he became, a the age of 21, he had adjusted Mariam Foundation in the occupied territories.

And then from there he started contacting different hospitals, different organization to try to help treating the patients in the 1948 borders in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Again, everybody is privileged according to his case we don't distinguish between any political movemen or because he belonged to father to the political movement or the mother or or the case.

No, he is a cancer patient.

We treat him regardless of his background.

From there, we opened an office in United States called Friends Mariam, the Friends of Mariam.

We fought with a lot of fundraising in the United States and the Arab world to collect money to bring medicine to those, patient, cancer patient, sick, sick people.

And then we have evolved with the we don't do only medical.

Now, what we do we do is breast cancer, checkups for women that we d breast cancer at an early stage.

So before they get the cancer, they already know that whether they are going to be in cancer or not.

And this helped us to look to save a lot of women from it, from, being cancer.

At the same time, we take people from, Gaza and the West Bank towards to, to bring them and t try to treat them in hospitals in the West Bank.

And in 1948.

>>Mobilit of course, is a is a challenge, for Palestinians living in Gaza, for example, to get to the West Bank.

It is.

How does that complicate your work?

>>Unfortunately for us, it takes 6 to 9 months to get a patient approva for a patient to get out of Gaza in order to take him to the West Bank to treat him.

And by the time we get the approval, what happens?

The approval comes for the patient, but not for his mother or father or for his father, but not without the mother.

And the child at the age o seven and 8 he needs his mother.

So sometimes they get approval to the neighbor to join this one.

So what do we have to do?

What we have to do to overcome this problem?

We have created a new way, what with the donation we collect.

We help students in the Wes Bank to pay their education fee, and then they have to donate 2 or 3 days of their time on a weekly basis to be with those patients.

So they don't they don't they don't feel lonely at the same time we have created.

And then most of these people we used to put them in hotels.

Now what w did with open, we just recently, a year ago, we opened something called the home of Mariam where, we have we we rented the house, we innovated it.

We created a mood fo the patient not to feel lonely.

And then we started putting them in, in this hall to put his treatment.

Treatment at critical period, which is, which was very helpful.

It changed the psychology.

No diseases.

The most of it is really psychological.

If psychologically are strong, it will help cure.

If they psychologically are defeated, psychologically the disease gets gets worse.

So where we did that one an then so it worked very well for.

So now we're planning to open more homes in different parts in order to help the patient.

At the same time we have doctors and the nurses and students who are donating their time there.

They are volunteers.

We probably have more than 1,500 doctors, almost 2,000 nurses, and then students, because we help with their education, we have hundreds of students where they donate their time to help some of them.

All of them actually except the students.

They help free of charge.

They don't charge us anything.

They don't charge the patient anything.

Some of them are on consultation.

Some of they they do treatments.

Sometimes, you know, it depends on it.

And then we we associate with a lo of international organizations when they donate for us medicine.

Now we help we have a donation from the United States from one of the Musli organization, the United States.

They donated for us six containers for, cance patient treatments, medicines.

Now we're waiting for the approval to send them to Gaza due to the to the war, what's happening in Gaza.

So we lot of people are really donatin to us financing or in medicine.

>>Are you seeing that.

Obviously, it's been very traumatic experience the last couple of years for for the population there, the midst of a war and suffering greatly and obviously getting the basic need essentials for life has been difficult.

How has that complicated your work?

Number one.

And then another question is because there's been such a spotlight on, Gaza in particular, are you seeing more donations from United States and elsewhere?

>>Okay, let me start a little bit before that.

During the first couple of days of the war, you know, the hospitals were hit like a hospital, and that all of us we lost 50% of our volunteers.

Still, to date, we don't know where they are.

Are they dead are they killed or they ran away?

We know nothing about them.

So they were they were in the hospital with the patients in Gaza.

So we lost this kind of 50, 50% since the war started getting medicine into Gaza is extremely difficult.

Probably we should have let's say, for example, put $1 million of medicine to Gaza.

Probably.

We now we have entered probably $100,000 out of a million.

So really it with it so cut down by 90, 90, 95%.

So it really made life very difficult for Gazans.

Cancer treatment.

Now after the ceasefire, we are finding a little bit more flexibility, but it's extremely difficult.

We are waiting to get into the, the the containers into Gaza for almost like, almost like one month.

The goods are ready, medicine is ready, containers are packed.

We're waiting for the go to to be to be shipped.

So still we, we, we see a lot of difficulties.

And then our doctors in the volunteers in Gaza be telling us that the deat rates of cancer patients in Gaza has increased almost by 90% because there's no treatment for two years.

So cancer started killing their bodies eating up their, their bodies.

So still we still have a long way to go to really come back to the original works we used to do.

>>So they - the baseline has changed obviously in the last couple years.

What about the other part of my question I was asking about outside attention?

Has that translated into more more dollar and more support for your work?

>>Big time.

Big time.

Because you see, some Americans or Europeans in general, they don't know anything about Palestine or Gaza, but but from the humanitarian point of view, it change their position.

Why all those children at the age of five and seven and ten are dying?

What they have done, they are not fighters, they are not politically associated.

They are nothing.

They are normal children.

So a lot of lot of, people, they started donating out of humanitarian.

Then they understood the cas of Palestine and the Gaza, etc.

but before that they knew nothing about Palestine.

You do not think about, you know, the American mentality is living within the United States.

They don't know much about what's happening around the world because this is the system structure.

Now, after the war in Gaza, there is there is a lot of awareness, especially from a humanitarian point of view, why those children are dying.

And then most of our patient, 70 to 80% of our patient, they are children before they below the age of ten.

And then always people wondering why has those children not treated?

With wars, it's for the others, for the political peopl fought for it, so they put many.

But those innocent children, why are they dying?

Why they're not treated so?

We have found a lot of response in the United States and in Europe, even in the Arab world, they never kind of kne even the Arab and Muslim world.

To add, to be fair, they never knew the irony.

The Gazans were going through.

Now they realized how bad it is, so they started donating.

When we tell them we don't want $1 million, give me $100, donate $100.

And then if you collect a million people with $100, that's a lot of money.

We don't want one person to donate.

And the war in Gaza has opened the heart of the people to understand what's going on in Gaza, and especially with those patients.

And of course, we're talking about cancer patients today.

I'm not talking about kidney patient.

I'm not talking about, ulcer patient.

A heart patient-- >>Yo talk about cancer specifically.

>>Cancer.

This is th I love that much of the problem in other diseases, especially in the like, the pancreas issues, th the diabetes, the heart problem.

They do also, they don't have medicine.

But our mission, as Mariam foundatio and Friends of Mariam is cancer.

Of course, at the same time, if we can get medicine to Gaza for, diabetes, the diabetics, the patients, or we can get the food in, we will not say no.

We we try to push as much as we can, but mostly we are looking at the cancer patients.

>>So your experience now working, having a career in business and then working on these humanitarian issues, you know, particularl with the Palestinian population, how, you know, are you, do you believe even more now in the power of civil society than, than you did before you started doing this work?

>>I always believe in the power of the civil society, but I was not.

I didn't have time for it.

After I retired, I found how much I missed in giving to the civil society.

No, no, because I'm retired.

I'm giving 100% of my tim to the Civil society, as I said.

I mean, we were involved in multiple, NGOs, cancer, education, etc.

so now I feel how much, how much, how little I used to give to the civil society, to the patient, to the needy.

So now I'm trying to compensate as much as I can of my time and my money.

Not only my time is time and money, even though time is money, but time and money.

How much we should have given to those people because it's not of their fault that they are poor, simply they're born.

It's not their faul that they became cancer patient.

It just happened.

So our duty as people, healthy and financially better off than them.

Our duty is to give back t those societies, to those needy.

Because again, if you believ in God and believe in his mercy, you realize how much you missed giving to those guys.

Instead of going on vacation two three times a year, I could go vacation one time a year.

The balance you could donate it.

So it really opened my heart and my feeling and my mind towards those guys.

And that's what also preaching to other people.

Come on, man.

If don't spend like $100,000 on your vacation, say-- >>Be part of the solution.

>>Spend 90,000.

Give me 10,000.

Donate, participate with 10,000, participate with 5,000.

It doesn't matter but participate.

And there is in Gaza a lot of awareness that we should participate regardless of the amount.

Is it the hundred dollars $50?

Some people cannot donate more than $50.

Some people can donate $1 million.

So the $50 fine is good.

This is a good deed.

Then it up to the million, you know.

What do you mean?

You are stingy.

You don't give away the million give hundred thousand dollars.

So there is more and mor awareness of the civil society.

How much they should do.

I participate in helping others.

>>Well, thank you for taking time to explain this, explaining your work to us today.

And, you know, good luck with with-- >>Thank you.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain and let people know of what we are doing and how much civil society and patients they need, the help of the better of people.

This is a great mission we should all participate in, whether it's in cancer or diabetes or in educatio or in anything, or in poverty.

There's so much missing i the world that we can help with.

Thank you very much, David.

>>Thank you.

>>Thank you, thank you.

>>Join us next week for par three of my discussions from the Bosphorus Summit, when we'll talk economics with the Governor of Santiago, Argentina.

Until then, thank you for joining us here on Global Perspectives.