Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Within the scope of the Employment Mobilization, under the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, initiated by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services and TOBB, the Employment Mobilization 2019 İstanbul Meeting was held at the Haliç Congress Center hosted by the İstanbul Governorship and the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that he strongly condemns the racist and fascist attack on Muslims during Friday Prayer in New Zealand.

Hisarcıklıoğlu, reminding that the President Erdoğan called on the business world to launch a new employment campaign at the TOBB Turkey Economy Summit, said “Following this, we worked day and night with the Minister of Labor. Then we came together with the Minister of Treasury and the Minister of Finance. Thanks to the executive and visionary approaches of our ministers, a new, comprehensive and bold stimulus package was prepared. For new employers, the previously unavailable unpaid salary support and tax and premium deductions were introduced. For those having economic difficulties and businesses slowing, short-time working allowances were introduced.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the architect of all of these is the Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk.

Stating that the Employment Mobilization has been initiated with Minister Selçuk on February 25^th, the TOBB President stated that they have undertaken this endeavor with 365 Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in 81 provinces and 160 counties and that they’ve established support and incentive promotion centers in every province within Chambers and Exchanges.

- Intensive work for promotion of the campaign

Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that they introduced the campaign throughout the country and that they are working to ensure the widest participation. “Thanks to our Labor Minister Selçuk, the public also gave great support to this endeavor. The local organization of our Ministry works with us in each province. Thanks to our governors, we are organizing joint meetings with District Governors, Accountants and Financial Advisors under their leadership. We reach out the biggest and highest employing companies in the provinces and meet one on one. We are talking about employment mobilization in local media. We follow all these works closely and note them all, which is the result of only 15 days of work.

As TOBB, we have invited all our members to participate in the campaign through our Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in 81 provinces. I've seen billboard ads coming to this meeting. Very nice, congratulations. These ads were produced by the Istanbul CC, Istanbul CE, Istanbul CI and Deniz CC together. Our chambers and exchanges in the other 80 provinces are also promoting in their provinces and districts with similar advertisements. We also prepared a commercial film to be published at the national level. We started using it on social media. Hopefully it will air on TV soon as well.”

Pointing out that they have great goals, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As you well know what is said in our faith: Man only gets what he works for. That's what falls to us. Effort from us, appreciation from Allah.”

- “We must stand with employment against unemployment”

Calling again on all the business world and employers, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Have confidence in Turkey's strength and future. Participate in the employment campaign. Take advantage of these historical supports. Don’t say, ‘We are small company, what difference would 1 person we hire make?’ We all must stand with employment against unemployment.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that he speaks with the heads of chambers and the commodity exchanges individually every day and that all of their agenda is focused on the Employment Campaign, that each province has set its goal and works day and night towards it.

Indicating that the first indicators are very positive, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In employment, we’ve initiated positive momentum. I hope more will come soon. We can get more up-to-date good news from the Minister.”

"Those who yesterday profited most are those who invested in and provided employment in Turkey,” said the TOBB President and went on, “Those who profit the most tomorrow will be those who are investing and provide employment in Turkey today. By hiring at least one unemployed citizen, you will improve your business, and contribute to economic growth, as well as be a winner of tomorrow by investing in the future of Turkey. We have never lost fertility nor hope in these lands. We will not lose them now. To say hello to a bountiful and hopeful future, we say there is business here, there is livelihood here, there is future here.”

- Minister Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk

Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk, the Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services, emphasized in her speech the need to work within the spirit of mobilization to reach the economic targets set in the globalized economy.

Describing that employment targets could be achieved with the cooperation of public institutions and private sector, Selçuk said that by investing more in domestic and national production, it should continue to open new employment areas by reducing dependence on foreign economy.

Selçuk, stating that if Turkey’s real potential is uncovered, it could easily be one of the world's 10 strongest economies, said, “This region offers us many possibilities in terms of economic wealth and opportunities. We will evaluate them together; we will create possibilities and opportunities together. Istanbul, in addition to being a dominant city for many ancient civilizations, is the locomotive of our industry with the added value it produces in trade and economy.”

- Incentive supports

Minister Selçuk said that in December, through employer, employee and public consensus, the net minimum wage for 2019 was determined.

Stating that while many of the world's countries including the European Union were experiencing employment losses with the devastating effects of the global crisis in 2007, Turkey, by increasing employment by approximately 8.3 million people since the global financial crisis, has taken the first place among the EU countries in terms of employment, Selcuk said, “Although the final figures haven’t been determined but it is most likely that compared to 2018 İŞKUR data, İŞKUR employment rates are 10% better in the first two months of this year. We believe that we will fulfill our promise of 2.5 million jobs.”

Selçuk also stated that they noted the promise of 1 million additional jobs from Istanbul, adding that the Ministry supports the labor market not only with the increase in employment but also with incentives.

- İstanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya

İstanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said that a race to be the most charitable among 81 provinces began on February 2017 8^th, with the second one initiated under the slogan of, “There is business in Turkey; there is prosperity,” both under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Yerlikaya stated that the promises were made at the center of the business world, thus the heart of the business world.

İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mevlüt Uysal also said that employment mobilization is the fight against adversity in the economy and that İstanbul, in terms of numbers in employment is less than one-third of Turkey overall, but conducts 50% of export and trade.

Emphasizing that İstanbul is far ahead of the competition in regards to value generated per person employed, Uysal stated that İstanbul should also act as a role model for the rest of Turkey in achieving its employment goal.

- “Incentives enable us to open doors for halal gain”

İstanbul Commodity Exchange (ISTIB) President Ali Kopuz also said that the public and private sectors are been able to achieve anything when they support each other. He said, “We, as Turkish businessmen, believe that there is people attain only what they work for, and they act accordingly; we always work. Again, we believe that it is only just to work in a righteous manner to earn a living and we strive to be instrumental in opening gates for halal gains. Thanks to these incentives, we have the opportunity to be instrumental in opening new gates of halal earning. To this end, 8 different incentives were presented to our business world.”

Kopuz said, “’The world's most difficult thing is to know how to do something, while watching someone else who doesn’t try to do it without saying anything’ says. Mevlana. As businesspeople who know how to do their job, we must always be on the lookout for opportunities to develop and grow our businesses.”

- “Labor laws should be made economy-friendly”

İstanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICC) President Şekib Avdagiç said, “We are Turkey's past, present and future. As long as we stand, no one can undermine Turkey.”

Avdagiç expressed his hope that the biggest employment incentives in the history of the republic will result in the biggest recruitment in the history of the Republic. “In order to achieve this, we must comprehensively relay these incentives to our target, the business world. Many establishments consider the incentives to be too good to be true. That is where the duty falls to us. We must convey that no matter what, every incentive will be fulfilled by the government. The reason for these incentives not being widely utilized is because they were not not sufficiently explained, rather than the nature of the incentives. As İTO we are doing a comprehensive promotion campaign with this in mind.”

Pointing out that it is necessary for state departments to help businesses in a way that is fast, facilitating, and in a matter which is not bureaucratically frustrating. Avdagic stressed that employment mobilization would not only reduce unemployment, but would both stimulate domestic demand and affect growth positively.

Calling for more comprehensive and more effective employment incentives to make employment law more economy friendly, Avdagic said, “Our business people are extremely unhappy with their business law cases and their results. They have to wait for 800 days. We are trying to carry out our business with the risks that we cannot determine nor uncontrollable. It will solve most of our business woes to match these to EU criteria.”

- “Quality, sustainable and permanent employment is in industry”

Erdal Bahçıvan, Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) President, stated that industry comes to the forefront in terms of creating added value for the economy, jobs more importantly contributing to the economy. We strongly believe that providing employment, creating jobs and prosperity is the cornerstone of a strong and sustainable economy.”

Stating that, as Industrialists, they consider it their priority to produce jobs and prosperity for the peace and welfare of the country and society, Bahçıvan said, “Going forward, we will maintain the same understanding and determination.”

- "Our members who utilize the incentives will begin to profit after 3-4 months”

Tamer Kıran, Maritime Trade Chamber (DTO) President, said, “Today, business may not be all that well, but after 3-4 months, when our country is in a rapid growth trend again, we will need new employees. We must prepare the employment we will need then, today. Otherwise, it will be difficult to source qualified personnel.”

Kıran underlined that employment made today will turn into a big investment for tomorrow and said, “Today, our members who utilize these incentives will see that they profit after 3-4 months and they will be a step ahead of their competitors.”

- "We are transferring our resources to qualified labor force”

Turkey Exporters Council (TİM) President İsmail Gülle, stating that they put great importance on solving the problems experienced in skilled labor in production, said, “Quality production can be made by qualified labor, so we are transferring our resources to this area. Together, shoulder to shoulder with our university, we are are trying to accelerate this with comprehensive, projects, chiefly in design.”

Gülle underlined that some of the incentives will be of great benefit in terms of ensuring international competitiveness.

- “Let's break the employment record in Istanbul”

Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MUSIAD) President Abdurrahman Kaan stated that businesses with the resources are employing people without making excuses, “But today, the new incentives, will make it even easier for the employers and will open new avenues for employment doors.”

Kaan, referring to the importance of Istanbul in trade, said, “As MUSIAD, with close to 60,000 companies, we provide over 1.6 million jobs. We stand by our business people and industrialists with 87 branches and representative offices in 93 countries with 223 contact points, in Turkey and globally. We consider the steps taken by the government to be of the utmost importance and we have always been staunch supporters of any effort to aid the progression of our country.”