Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

At the forum hosted by TOBB, during a panel moderated of Hakan Güldağ, the editor-in-chief of Dünya Newspaper, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak and TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu addressed entrepreneurs. 

Speaking at the panel, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said that the only way to achieve prosperity is through entrepreneurship, and that they want to prosper both as individuals and as a society.

Hisarcıklıoğlu, giving the examples of Germany and Japan in terms of entrepreneurship, explained that after the World War II these two countries were reborn from their ashes thanks to their entrepreneurs. 

Emphasizing that the solution to unemployment is through entrepreneurship, the TOBB President said, “Today the richest countries in the world are the most entrepreneur-rich countries. One entrepreneur employs 10 people. We need 90 thousand entrepreneurs every year in order to provide employment for 900,000 people.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu reported that 5% of the total population in Japan and 2% in Turkey; that 2 million new entrepreneurs are needed in Turkey to reach the level of Japan. 

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the most important potential in reaching more entrepreneurs are women and young people, and said, “You can’t box with one arm. More women should be entrepreneurs. Young people should also be more enthusiastic in this area. To achieve this, we established the TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council in 2007 and the TOBB Young Entrepreneurs Council in 2009. Our councils are working with great enthusiasm to promote more young people and women as entrepreneur role models, by telling their success stories throughout Anatolia. When we started, the rate of women entrepreneurs was 6.5%, today it has reached 8.5%. We brought thousands of young people together with hundreds of mentors.”

- “We will make İstanbul the center of global entrepreneurship”

Stating that they have created an important agenda for entrepreneurship for a stronger and richer Turkey, Hisarcıklıoğlu went on, “The future is very promising. We believe that 99% of innovations in the world have not been done yet. However, it is necessary to do what is not done or to do it differently. So it does not matter which sector is invested in, it is important to invest in the mind. The only thing that makes money in the world anymore is the mind. Innovation is possible through reason. We are trying to make Turkey an innovation hub through entrepreneurship. As the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, our aim is to make Istanbul a global entrepreneurship center. We need to give startups all manner of tax and legislation support. If we promise this to young brains in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and even Europe, then Turkey will achieve revolution.”