Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Attending the May monthly Council Meeting of the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO), TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu addressed the question, “To what end does TOBB collects subscription fees?” The customs gates modernized by GTİ have had their wait time halved and have profited the Turkish private sector by 420 million Dollars per year.

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that after the earthquake in Van and Erciş, license plates from all 81 provinces could be seen there, “If we can come together as one on dark days, we can yet throw off Turkey’s problem, terror. There is an extraordinary hope and anticipation there. Terror has ended there, I returned from Van refilled with hope.”

Stating that they are in cooperation with KOSGEB to turn Van into a textiles city, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that they will also modernize the customs gate.

Providing information regarding Turkey’s economy, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu related that Turkey is the world’s third fastest growing country and said, “You accomplished this, the authors of this success story are the ones sitting in this hall. We must all acknowledge this success. When Turkey grew by 8.5%, the private sector employed 1.3 million people. We employed 1.3 million people together in one year alone for the first time. For the first time in Turkey, rate of unemployment decreased after a crisis. We’ve started 2012 well. There is development in the sectors of food, machinery, mining, beverages and stationary in comparison to last year.”

- “There will be a boom in the construction sector”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “With the implementation of the 2B and Reciprocity laws, foreigners will be able to acquire real estate; we expect a great boom in the construction sector in the coming period. We must be prepared.”

Lively domestic market and investment volume, low level of public borrowing are conducive to investing stated Hisarcıklıoğlu and went on, “Increasing energy dependency, insufficient austerity and Syria-Iran tensions are among the negative factors. The course of Europe’s crisis is very important. Are the banks in Europe going to go down or not? We take most of our loans from the banks in Europe. How will the tensions in Syria play out? Precautions to strengthen our competitive power are needed. Global competition increases each day.”

- “Prison sentences woke people up”

The TOBB President stated that high prices for energy exports are adversely affecting competition and went on, “Our greatest treasures are our entrepreneurs. We are using the world’s most expensive petroleum. Taxes which exacerbate this adversely affect our ability to compete.

We have shown great dedication in the renewal of the 50 year old Turkish Trade Law. We are fine with 1535 clauses of the law; however, we have serious reservations regarding 60 clauses. We were promised revisions. A bill which would have taken 3 years to pass was passed in just 3 and a half days but it had 60 clauses in it that we don’t want.

We held a meeting in İstanbul; it was attended by just 150 people. There were 20 businessmen. We summarized the law down to 92 pages; nobody read it. We pointed out the punishment clauses; nobody looked. It wasn’t just İstanbul which was like this; it was similar everywhere. Everyone reacted when a columnist wrote that there were prison sentences; they asked, ‘Are the Chambers asleep?’. The meeting attended by the minister hosted 850, half of them businessmen. 10,234 people watched the meeting online. Prison sentences woke people up.”

- “The Check Query System needs to be implemented”

Touching on the issue of dud checks in Turkey, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In the first three months of this year, the number of dud checks has increased by 39% in comparison to that of the previous year.78% of the dud checks issued in the first 3 months of the previous year and 51% of the ones issued this year have been paid. The Check Query System needs to be implemented as soon as possible.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the removal of the prison sentence in check procedures is the correct decision and added, “Economic procedures should be enforced with economic sanctions. However, there are matters which must be paid special attention to. Checks are used as a deferred payment method in Turkey. This is important in keeping business running in the market. Because of this, we emphasized that additional precautions must be taken when removing the prison sentence from sanctions concerning checks. The mechanisms protecting banks should also protect us. They do not trust us but they trust bankers. They can allegedly keep a secret.”

- “If we wish to prosper we can’t ignore China and India”

Pointing out that there needs to be Turkish businessmen in Chinese and Indian markets Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “China and India have a total 500 million of people who earn and spend more than Europeans. If we wish to prosper, we can’t ignore these markets.”

Stating that structural reforms are needed, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We are the 65th on the world competitiveness index and we are the 18th largest economy in the world. When we take both of these into account, it is evident we deserve medals from the government. Make it easier for us to do business.”

- İTO President Murat Yalçıntaş

TOBB Board Vice President and İTO President Murat Yalçıntaş said, “If we look at May 19th and May 29th and remember all that we’ve accomplished, we can gauge the things we will accomplish tomorrow. We are blessed to be witnessing the first steps towards building a great future for Turkey being taken.”

Yalçıntaş added that the fastest, the most dynamic and solution oriented interaction between the İstanbul business community and TOBB has been experienced during President Hisarcıklıoğlu’s office.
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