Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Hisarcıklıoğlu, beginning his speech by praying for the grace of Allah upon our martyred soldiers during Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, gave his assessments regarding Yalova. Stating that Yalova is where emperors visited since the Roman period for the thermal springs for morale and energy; Hisarcıklıoğlu also pointed out that, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk frequently visited Yalova and expressed his love, “Yalova is my city.”

Noting that Yalova is a city of environment and nature, the TOBB President said, “It has thermal springs that are rarely found in the world. An abundance oxygen between Istanbul, Kocaeli and Bursa. The surface area is small but the coastline is quite long. With green and blue, it gives people peace. Yalova is a wonderful region with its natural resources and beauties. This terrific region has fertile and productive lands. 25% of cut flower production in our country is in Yalova. Shipbuilding industry has been also developed rapidly with shipbuilding in Yalova.”

Stating that Yalova CCI is also a accredited chamber and offers 5-stars service, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We are working together with Chairmnan Tahsin in the TOBB Tourism Committee. They represent Yalova in Ankara. We take advantage of their experiences. I also took a look at Yalova's figures. The number of companies (23%) opened in 2017 increased more than the average of Turkey. There is hope in Yalova. Within the top 1000 industrial enterprises, there were no firms from Yalova for 10 years; but there are 4 firms now. The Yalova Chamber does good work. For Yalova's development and enrichment, it takes responsibility; it toils. From the chairman to the management, from the council to our women and young entrepreneurs, from the secretary general to the academic advisor and to all of our employees, may Allah bless you.”

Stating that they have taken two more important steps together with the Yalova CCI, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “The first is Online Document Generation. Now you can get instant documents from your home, workplace. There is no need to come to the Chamber; there is an online chamber now. Secondly, the chamber is the one stop shop in establishing a company. All processes for establishing a company will take place in our Chambers. We reduced the number of transactions from 7 to 1. We reduced the cost from 2,250TRY to 650TRY. That is the kind of service we provide to our members.”

- 160 billion in receivables

Drawing attention to important reforms made regarding VAT, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We worked with our minister; we cooperated with the government, ministerial cabinet, council and then the law was passed through the Assembly and enacted. Do you know how much money will we receive? A total of 160billion TRY in receivables from the government.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu provided information on their activities last year and TOBB’s and chambers/exchanges role in the fields of finance, employment and reform.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they provided financing with 9.9% of interest rate to 27,000 companies with Respite Credits while KOSGEB also reached 290,000 firms with 3 years of credits with 0 interest rate.

Stating that they have vouched for 221 billion TRY in loans for 364,000 firms as Credit Guarantee Fund, the TOBB President said that they are doing very important works in the field of employment.

Stating that the government provided them with important incentives in this regard, Hisarcıklıoğlu underlined that they created 1.5 million additional jobs as the Turkish private sector.