Ankara, which was selected as the capital of Turkey after the Proclamation of Republic was an Anatolian province of that time with a population of 30 thousand, making their living on agriculture and livestock and having a commercial life limited to the purchase and sales of goods arising from agriculture and livestock. In order to establish a province that is able to provide the services of a capital, intense infra and superstructure constructions were started in Ankara in which way the business life was enlivened, and later small scale manufacturing shops were stated to be established to meet the construction material needs. After 1923s The Machinery and Chemistry Industry, General Directorate for Sümerbank and General Directorate for Etibank and similar Public Industrial Institutions and the factories of these institutions were constructed in Ankara and that encouraged the establishment of many small sized private enterprises working as a supporting industry for these factories and the migration of populations to Ankara for workforce, and all these developments became both the cause and reason for industrialization and population growth in Ankara. Such developments led to the increase of manufacturing sites, and the number of traders and crafts engaged in trading in Ankara and as a result of the need for professional solidarity, Ankara Chamber of Commerce and Industry was established in May, 1923. Further development of the industry in Ankara with the Government policies giving priority to the Private Sector especially after 1950s, the difference of the problems in the industrial sector from the problems of the traders and the desire for submitting those problems to the government and the relevant authorities and monitoring the developments generated the thought for establishing an independent Chamber of Industry. As a result of the long and intense efforts of Dr. Orhan Işık, Mümin Erkunt, Cenap And, Necati Tereyağoğlu and Ahmet Karamancı, Ankara Chamber of Industry was established on November 18th, 1963 with 259 industry members in 11 groups and with a budget of 30.000.-TL. At the first meeting of the Chamber Council held on the same day, a secret voting was done as a result of which Rasih Selcanoğlu was elected as the Chair of the Council, Celal İmre was elected as the Deputy Chair, İsmail Bengi and Haluk Türkmen were elected as the Clerk. for the membership of the Board of Directors, which was called the Administrative Committee then, Dr. Orhan Işık (the Chair of the Board), Mümin Erkunt, Ahmet Karamancı, Hami Kartay, Orhan Koloğlu, Halil Kaya, Özdemir Yarar were elected. And the first members of the chamber Council were as follows,
- Ahmet Karamancı,
- İhsan Özkaşıkçı,
- Sami Koruç,
- Hasan Ulaş,
- Hami Kartay,
- İsmail Bengi,
- Abdülkadir Tüfekçioğlu,
- Burhan Aktürk,
- Mümin Erkunt,
- Şeref Sürmen,
- Mehmet İlalan,
- Saim Köklü,
- Orhan Işık,
- Ahmet Bozkurt,
- Celal İmre,
- Haluk Türkmen,
- Halil Kaya,
- Necati Tereyağoğlu,
- Orhan Koloğlu,
- Rasih Selcanoğlu,
- Cenap And,
- Özdemir Yarar
The first Secretary General of the Chamber is Munis Faik Ozansoy. Ankara Chamber of Industry started its activities in a small apartment of an office building at Şehit Teğmen Kalmaz Caddesi. After a while, it continued to serve at the 4th floor of Terzioğlu Han (Terzioğlu Building) in Kızılay. Later the Chamber purchased a building at the address Atatürk Bulvarı No: 193, restored it and moved to that building in 1977. Ankara Chamber of Industry, established for the purpose of carrying the industry to the position it deserved for a balanced development and believing in that development is only possible through an absolute industry, has tried to fulfill all the tasks assigned within the bounds of possibility for an efficient operation and development of Industry in Ankara since it was established and it will continue to work in the same manner.