Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB GGK President Ali Sabancı, TOBB KGK President Aynur Bektaş KOSGEB President Mustafa Kaplan, Asst. Prof. Emine Esra Karadeniz and Babson College Rector Leonard Schlesinger made speeches during the start of the meeting.

Asst. Prof. Esra Karadeniz stated in her speech that according to the report, newly established entrepeneurship which consisted of 3.2% of the adult population between the ages of 18 and 64 increased 3.7%, new business owner entrepreneurs increased from 3% to 5.1%, early term entrepreneur ratio increased from 6% to 8.6% and institutionalized entrepreneurs increased from 4.8% to 10.7%.

Karadeniz went on to say, “The number of entrepreneurs between the ages of 35-44 and 45-54 are increasing. Somehow the age of entrepreneurship is increasing whereas we should be encouraging our youth and women to partake in entrepreneurial activities in an age group where most of our population is young and unemployed.”

- TOBB GGK President Sabancı

TOBB Young Entrepreneurs Council President Ali Sabancı stated that they celebrated the Entrepreneurship Week during November and organized many activities, reaching out to 25 million people via the media.

Providing information regarding their work as the Young Entrepreneurs Council, Sabancı stated that most of their efforts for the last two years have been directed at universities and have been about informing youth that there are alternatives.

Stating that they started off in 2009 with the GEM report to ascertain the level of entrepreneurship in Turkey, Sabancı said, “We need accurate data. GEM is a very important step for us. We must continue to support it.”

- TOBB KGK President Bektaş

TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council (KGK) President Aynur Bektaş stated that women becoming entrepreneurs is varied according to a country’s economy and said; “Women become entrepreneurs out of necessity according to the needs of their family. The rate of women joining the workforce in times of crises is increasing.  There are those who have said ‘women have increased unemployment’. Women come to the fore and be more entrepreneurial when the needs of their family requires it of them. We are unable to tap into women’s energy for entrepreneurship as they are left to tend to the disabled, children and the old without support mechanisms which would help them partake of the business life.”

- KOSGEB President Kaplan

KOSGEB President Mustafa Kaplan said that they would be entering an era where they would be supporting innovative entrepreneurship in a more qualified manner, “We have completed the establishment work for the formation of an Entrepreneurship Council. This will be a council to support and develop entrepreneurship in Turkey as well as removing obstacles to entrepreneurship in Turkey. We hope to be coordinating this council.”

- Babson College Rector Schlesinger

The Babson College Rector Leonard Schlesinger assessed the results of the report.

Schlesinger stated that the report did not have a huge cost and the conclusion points out an important fact, “Entrepreneurship is not represented equally in all parts of society, especially in women. There is much work to be done.

These research and surveys will have important effects on the world. This study will aid the entrepreneurship in Turkey greatly.”

- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)

The Global Entrepreneurshi Monitor (GEM) was established in 1998 between the Babson College and London Business School to research the importance of entrepreneurship in economic growth. The research project which started with the participation of 10 countries in 1999 continues today with participation from 54 countries.

GEM, calculating the Entrepreneurship Activities of its member countries each year, prepares reports regarding entrepreneurship activity levels and differences between countries, ascertaining which national properties the differences stem from and identifying the relationship between national economic development and entrepreneurship.