Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The Kayseri Chamber of Industry’s KAYSO 2015 Industry Night was held in Kayseri with the attendances of TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Economy Minister Mustafa Elitaş as well as many prominent guests from the fields of politics and business.

Speaking at the meeting, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the matter of wages are confusing for industrialists and said, “99.2% of our establishments are SMEs. Their profit before taxes is 40 billion TRY. I’m not mentioning taxes yet. If we were to shoulder the burden of this new minimum wage that would cost us 26 billion TRY. SMEs would lose their competitive power. We want to distribute this burden. Don’t load it all on us, we don’t have the power to carry it. Let’s all shoulder it together. It would please us if our employees’ wages increased to 1,300 TRY. It would give them more to spend.”

The cost of an employee for us is 1,500 TRY, employees receive 1,000 TRY. According to the OECD data, we are the first in the world in terms of tax burdens with 71%. We want our tax burdens to match the countries we are competing against. We wish we could give even more than 1,300 TRY.”

- Success of the private sector

The TOBB President pointed out that Turkey’s region is undergoing great troubles. Stating that there is economic crises to the west and war to the north and south, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We’ve had 4 elections all within 2 years, see what the merchants of Kayseri have succeeded in achieving in that time. Kayseri’s employment stood at the 40s; Kayseri increased its exports by 41% while the national average stayed at 30%; number of establishments increased by 34% nationally while Kayseri boasts of 40%; the number of companies from Kayseri in the list of 500 largest companies in Turkey increased from 10 to 15. These industrialists deserve medals for their efforts.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu also extended his thanks to the representatives of the political, bureaucratic and business community. He said that the appointment of Kayseri TBMM Representative Mustafa Elitaş as Ministry of Economy is an important opportunity for Turkey, “The Prime Minister chose to put someone from Kayseri in charge of the economy. This was the best choice. Mr. Elitaş is intimately familiar with the economy and has been active in it.”

- Economy Minister Elitaş

Economy Minister Mustafa Elitaş stated that it has been an uphill battle for Turkey since its foundation and said, “It was difficult to manage unscathed and Turkey has been beset by efforts to destabilize it.”

Minister Elitaş stated that an economy summit would be held in Kayseri with the attendance of approximately 500 business people from Azerbaijan and Georgia.

- Other speakers

Former Minister for Energy and Natural Resources and AK Party Kayseri TBMM Representative Taner Yıldız and AK Party Vice President and Kayseri TBMM Representative Mehmet Özhaseki also spoke during the event.