Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Reminding that capacity reports are prepared by chambers according to Law #5174, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “The reports are, after being approved by our Union, given to those who request them. Capacity reports are crucial in identifying the industrial strength and constructing an industrial information system. In addition, it is necessary for the industrialist to attain industry registry documentation, benefit from energy savings, putting together incentives and offer documentations.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that in the 80’s approximately 5,000 capacity reports were prepared per year while, parallel to Turkey’s industrialization, this number has reached 30,000 and the number would increase much more in the coming years in line with exporting goals and industrialization speed.

- “Full automation started at the beginning of 2012”

Stating that there were significant changes to the preparation process of industry reports in 2008, the TOBB President said, “With technological developments and the development of software infrastructure, the capacity report automation system, started out in the Ankara Chamber of Industry, has now spread to all of our chambers. As of the beginning of 2012, full transition to automation has been made.

Also, instead of the ISIC coding system, we have begun using the PRODCOM coding system used by the EU. Many institutions and establishments are applying to our Union in order to have direct access to the system. They want to expedite their business by attaining documentation in electronic form. These requests point out just how important the capacity reports are. Our Union is aware of this.”

- “We will know what everyone is doing”

Emphasizing the care needed while preparing capacity reports, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “The capacity reports are very important information for our country. As TOBB, we are very well aware of the need for information in Turkey. According to the decision made at the 4th Statistics Congress, our Union has been given the responsibility of announcing the Industry Capacity Report Statistics. We have accordingly sped up our efforts.

We have been working on NACE codes for a very long while. We have rolled up our sleeves for renewing activity codes. By relegating a single NACE numbers to everyone, we will finally know what everyone’s up to. On the other hand, we have also undertaken a great project to develop capacity report expertise system. Our Board has decided to conduct training and certification for experts who will be preparing capacity reports and has announced this decision to all of our chambers.

This meeting is the first step of the said process. We will be providing training to all reporters and experts in our chambers. Reporters and experts will be certified at the end of this training. Once the legislation is in place, uncertified experts will not be able to prepare capacity reports.”

- “Don’t let me down”

Pointing out that there have been some problems regarding capacity reports, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that some of the capacity reports give to industrialists are not accurate and some reports have been prepared without actually going to the place of business, that the reports do not reflect the present situation at the company, multiple companies appearing to be situated at the same address, multiple capacity reports taken for a single address and single company, issuing of a report despite the company not being located at where it is purported to be.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the authority and responsibilities of those in charge of preparing capacity reports are very clearly stated and that the production facilities, production capacities, machinery, equipment and personnel numbers of special importance sectors will be inspected on a regular basis.

Touching on the importance of capacity reports for Turkey, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In actuality, the work you’re doing is one of the most important ones in Turkey. Why do we want to be rich? I travel all over Turkey and ask, ‘Is there anybody who doesn’t want to be rich?’ There is, sometimes, just maybe one person in the hall –and that is because he’s already rich. Apart from him, everyone wants to be rich. How will this come about? Only by producing… If we do not produce correct information, how will we correctly direct investors? This is our greatest fault. Don’t take offense but we will be separating those who do their jobs and those who don’t in the coming term. There can be no special consideration for friends and family and so on. There can be no informal relations in an institutional sense. As ‘Rifat’, I may give you 100 Liras out of my own pocket and that concerns only me. But when the issue affects 70 million, then the responsibility lies with all of us. My wish from you is that you conduct yourselves truthfully. The trick is honesty. The honest man wins in the end. Even though I may look like I’m losing sometimes as long as I do relinquish honestly, I won in the end. Do this right so I won’t say ‘There’s smuggled oil in Turkey and you are responsible’. Don’t let me down.”
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