Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The Regional Consultation Meeting took place at the Kahmaranmaraş Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the attendances of Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, TESK President Bendevi Palandöken, Kahramanmaraş Governor Vahdettin Özkan, Kahramanmaraş Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Serdar Zabun, Kahramanmaraş Commodity Exchange President Ahmet Duran Balsuyu and Afşin, Elbistan, Adıyaman, Gaziantep, Osmaniye, Kilis and Hatay Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that Kahramanmaraş is an important industry, trade and agriculture city of the country. Referring to the fact that the city is also a city of education with 2 universities, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Maraş is one of the brand cities of our country with its ice cream, pepper, tarhana soup, wood carving and copper work. Maraş is very important to us. On behalf of the merchants and industrialists of Maraş as TOBB, we provided a Science High School and dormitory to Maraş. Today, we came to listen to you with our Trade Minister.”

Thanking the Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “I believe that with the vision and dynamism of our minister, a new breakthrough will begin in both domestic and foreign trade.” Congratulating the Kahramanmaraş CCI, Kahramanmaraş CE, Afşin CCI and Elbistan CCI for hosting this meeting in Kahramanmaraş Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “There are chambers and exchanges from 7 provinces here: Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman, Gaziantep, Osmaniye, Kilis, Şanlıurfa and Hatay. I would like to thank them all individually for coming.”

- Fulfilled demands of chambers/exchanges

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that many demands submitted to the government in the last few months have been realized thanks to the support and follow-up of Minister Pekcan, “Various measures have been taken to reduce employment costs, increase access to finance, and reduce tax rates. A new system was introduced, which accelerated the VAT refunds. Commercial receivables insurance came into force. Our President and with the participation of Ministers, we carried out the TOBB Turkey Economy Summit on January 21^st; we relayed the issues on our agenda. Again in this Council, our Chambers and Commodity Exchanges pledged further employment to the President of the Republic of Turkey. Then on February 25^th, the Employment Mobilization 2019 began with the ‘This is Turkey; There is Business Here,’ slogan. Within the scope of the Employment Mobilization, Kahramanmaraş announced its new employment target of 20,000 people. I believe you will achieve this.

Our government has also taken steps to support employment. Short working allowance was brought to the table, for example. Now, there is no need to reduce employment because things have slowed down. Apply and premiums are paid for 3 months. New incentives came to additional employment. For example, every additional employment until April 30^th will be receive fee-tax-premium from the government for 3 months and for the next 9 months, you only need to pay wages. These previously unseen, historical supports came into play. TOBB, Chambers and Commodity Exchanges are fully in support of this mobilization in 81 provinces and 160 counties.

We invite all our businesses to participate in the campaign. Here, I call again on our business world and employers in all surrounding cities, especially in Kahramanmaraş. Take advantage of these historical supports, join the employment campaign.”

- Exports push

Noting that they have started an exports push under the leadership of Minister Pekcan, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they’ve established Export Support Offices within the chambers together with the Ministry. Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Our chambers will serve as guide captains for all exporters through these offices. A demand from our companies was to make Eximbank more active. Thanks to the work of the Minister, Eximbank became more accessible for our SMEs. In 2017, the share of SMEs in Eximbank loans was 53%.

Now the SME share has reached 71%. Furthermore, with the instructions of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eximbank is beginning to offer more cost-effective investment financing to our producers/exporters. In this context, a financing protocol of 200 million USD was signed with 9 leasing companies. There are positive developments in interest rates in the last 2-3 months. The decline in bank loans has ended and begun to increase again. In short, we can see ahead more clearly than before.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu also mentioned that there are problems in the business world, but underlined that they have the power to overcome them all. “As the Turkish business world, we have proved many times in the past what we can do, how dynamic and productive we are, despite every obstacle we face. Through private sector-public sector consultation, we can overcome all problems.” The TOBB President stated that, together, they will bring Turkey to the place it deserves.