Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu urged all SMEs to take advantage of the opportunities brought on by the internet. Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized the importance of the opportunity presented by the internet in terms of lowering costs and stepping unto the global stage.

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu, attending the launch held at the Aydın Adnan Menderes University, the launch of the “Aydın Chamber of Commerce Leaps Forward” project (AYTOBİL), stated in his speech that business will move faster through the internet in Turkey. Advocating the active use of internet against the medium-income trap, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “You can work out of your office without becoming embroiled in bureaucracy, paperwork and pointless costs. This is an extraordinary opportunity for SMEs to lower theirs costs and open up to the world. Our chambers should take this into account moving forward. Aydın TO has taken a positive step in this direction; I congratulate them.”

- “The internet is treated dismissively”

Pointing out that the two main points of discussion throughout the world are the rising prominence of cities in the economy and the internet becoming the backbone of the economy. Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We use the internet like a newspaper, TV or a coffee house. We only view it as a social media tool. We have the highest number of users on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Unfortunately we use those incorrectly as well. Everyone insults each other. The internet is actually an opportunity for SMEs to lower costs and open up to the world. While we use e-commerce to sell goods to our consumers, China uses it for export. E-commerce presents the ability to operate a shop to every SME without being forced to work with hypermarkets, supermarkets and distributors. The share of e-commerce in total retail in the G20 is 4%, 14% in the UK while only 0.1% in Turkey.”

- Competition between cities

Hisarcıklıoğlu drew attention to the fact that the world’s competition takes place between cities instead of countries and went on to touch on the subject of the UMEM Ability’10 Project as well as praising Aydın’s efforts in this endeavor.

Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized the unique opportunities presented to Aydın thanks to its agriculture, tourism, industry and mining resources.

Speaking in regards to incentives, Hisarcıklıoğlu advocated the need for dynamic incentive policy instead of a static one.

Aydın Chamber of Commerce (AYTO) Board President Hakan Ülken provided information on the AYTOBİL Project.

At the end of the meeting, AYTO Atlas Jet Protocol for Aydın Chamber of Commerce members to fly for less as well as a protocol for the vocational school to be built by TOBB in Aydın.