Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they have a difficult path ahead of them in order to reach the Turkey of their dreams and went on, “This difficult road can only be surmounted through the partnership of the private and public sectors. The protocol which we will be signing today will be an extraordinary example of public-private sector cooperation and carry our country into the future. I hope that our cooperation will be cause for new partnerships.”

Stating that regional inequality is the first great matter which must be focused on, TOBB and DEİK President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “When you divide Turkey into 5 different socio-economic zones we see that while the most developed regions’ contribution to the national income is around 45%, the least developed region contributes only 3.9%. This shows that we implement adapt significant measures. We have thought long and hard on this matter. What we see is that regional inequality cannot be solved through just public administration’s ministrations. We are focusing on abolishing regional inequalities with the resources of the regions themselves.

Our government has taken one of the most revolutionary steps of the history of the Republic. With the participation of the public administration and the private sector, it has mobilized its local resources. It has established development agencies aiming for regional development.

In the last 6 years, 26 agencies have been established in order to cover all of the country and have started their work with all due haste.

On the other hand, our government is implementing a very generous incentives package in order to address regional inequality. All of this shows how determined our country is to fight regional inequality.”

- Bridge between DEİK and Development Agencies

TOBB and DEİK President Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that with the signed protocol, DEİK and 26 Development Agencies would be connected through a bridge of cooperation. Hisarcıklıoğlu, touching on the significant changes which have taken place in the last 30 years in Turkey, said, “Today, Turkey is a regional power, an important global player. Our successes make us very proud. However we are not ones to be satisfied with just this. Our goals are great.”

Providing information regarding DEİK’s structure and works, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “DEİK has taken on the role of conducting the Turkish private sector’s foreign economic relations and serving the Turkish private sector with its 38 Founding Institutions, 109 Business Councils, 114 Chamber and Exchange Representatives and 3 International Representatives.

Our goal as DEİK is to contribute to the development of our country and its fight against regional inequality by implementing a new mechanism in cooperation with the Development Agency.

We believe that Development Agencies working in coordination with the Development Minister can be institutions which develop the foreign trade of regions, promote them and drawing investors as well as increasing the capacities of the regions. This protocol will bring the cooperation between DEİK and Development Agencies into an institutional framework. Our Agencies will be members of the DEİK Development Platform. DEİK will present its accumulated knowledge and network through this platform to the agencies.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu, in regards to the DEİK Development Platform, said:

“The Platform will conduct the regulation of the joint investment delegation, promote agencies abroad, coordinate partnership and cooperation offers from agencies, ensure the agencies take part in international trips, promote regions and agencies in its bulletins and publications and provide attractive DEİK membership opportunities to SMEs in agency regions.”

- Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz

Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz stated that protocols between the Foreign Economic Affairs Council (DEİK) and each development agency would be signed, connecting the networks of DEİK and the Development Agencies.

Yılmaz stated that Turkey has great goals and that it must grow rapidly and emphasized the importance of drawing foreign investment to Turkey.

Stating that in order to achieve this, political and macroeconomic stability as well as an education policy geared towards the needs of the market are needed to ensure the presence of a viable investment environment, Yılmaz said that just a viable investment environment would be suffice by itself, but that Turkey’s potential must be promoted in various geographies.

Drawing attention to the importance development agencies as a source of information, Yılmaz stated that there are very significant analyses being conducted in their regions. Putting greater importance on these analyses rather than the financial support projects, Yılmaz said that once the information gained are presented to investors there would be a much more significant result.

Yılmaz stated that they predict three stages regarding agencies. The first being the completed realization of their reason for establishment. The second, institutionalization which has seen great progress to this end.

The third being the “specialization and deepening” phase, Yılmaz said, “We are completing institutionalization while entering the specialization and deepening phase.”

Stating that they have declared this a year for analysis with the agencies, Yılmaz said that they plan on conducting more analyses and producing more information. Yılmaz stated that they would continue supporting the specialization of agencies, their cooperation, personnel and projects.
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