Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The “Encouraging Turkey for Production, Growth and Prosperity” meeting took place in Diyarbakır with the Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan presiding over the proceedings. The opening speeches of the meeting were conducted by Minister Çağlayan, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, TİM President Mehmet Büyükekşi and Diyarbakır Municipality Director Osman Baydemir. TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu expressed his gratitude for Diyarbakır’s and region’s hospitality. “It is very auspicious that this meeting is taking place in Diyarbakır. There has been a great push to develop Diyarbakır in recent years,” said Hisarcıklıoğlu and stated that, as long as this persists, the region will become the economic, trade and industry center of the Middle East.

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized the importance of the meeting, saying, “This meeting is very important. It is being conducted to ascertain the effects of the incentive system announced approximately a year ago, the 5th and 6th zone effects; its the pros and cons. The assessment is being made so that, if necessary, amendments can be made before it is too late. I would like to extend my thanks to the Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan and his team for their understanding of the situation. The new incentives system was designed with this in mind. As TOBB, we have defended it from the first day I came into office. We stated that the incentives system needs to be overhauled. We toiled for years. The Minister listened to the urgings of the private sector and, for the first time in Turkey, the approach to incentives changed. We moved away from general incentive policies to the application of incentive policies focused on sector and region. In this regard, the representatives of the private sector present in this hall have worked hard to this end. You can’t be too proud of the contributions you’ve made to the future of Turkey. I thank you all, especially the Chamber-Exchange community.”

Stating that they’ve worked closely with the Ministry as the TOBB community during the design of the system, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We conducted new incentives system meetings with our Chambers/ Exchanges. The all reported back to us, stating which sectors in which cities needed to be incentivized. We made these reports systematic. Our team and the bureaucrats of the Economy Ministry met many times. Our last meeting with the Minister was in September 9th, 2011. As a result, a private sector friendly mechanism was formed.”

- The results of the new incentives system

Providing information regarding the effects of the new incentives system to the region, the TOBB President reminded that only 5% of incentives in 2011 were granted to the 6th zone while in only the first five months of 2013, 14% of total incentives were funneled to the region: “The share of incentives has increased to three times its former level. In this regard, the employment share of the region has increased from 7% to 14%. This means that if the system is established correctly, you get results. I’ll say it clearly: We explicitly trust the mechanism implemented in the region in line with the suggestions of the Chamber and Exchange community there. The achievement of Turkey’s goals will be undersigned by this incentives system and the Turkish private sector. Of course there are shortcomings. This is only human nature. What’s important is the establishment of this new mentality. Just like we are doing today, the shortcomings of the system will be laid out and eliminated. With time, a perfect system will be implemented. The system will continue to be improved. That is why I want to thank all of you who have contributed to this endeavor.”

- The greatest incentive is peace

Underlining the fact that the greatest incentive is peace, the TOBB President said:

“You may implement the perfect incentives system, however, without peace, it will do no good. Investments are timid. They want to feel safe. We’ve always said so, peace-trade-prosperity. These are links in an unbreakable chain. There is no trade without peace; no prosperity without trade. An atmosphere of peace has been achieved for some months now. Yesterday a Chamber president said, ‘We’ve received as much investment applications in the last 3 months as we have seen in the last 5 years.’ I’m getting OIZ requests one after the other from the chairmen in the region. Before, we spoke about the incidents in the region in every meeting, now we talk about investment, employment and exports.

If this process is maintained, the region will benefit from it, Turkey will benefit from it. The state will benefit from it, the people will benefit from it. Our community wants peace the most. The ones who will achieve this is our community. We do not discriminate on any basis when doing business. All of our trade is, in essence, compromise. It is the middle path. That is why it is always the private sector which advocates peace.”

- Great contributions of the chambers and exchanges to peace

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu went on to talk about the various contacts they’ve established for the promotion of peace in the region; meetings with the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister Deputy in addition to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the various efforts of the Wise People Committee in which Hisarcıklıoğlu is a member by invitation of the Prime Minister to represent the Turkish private sector as a whole.

Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized the importance of deliberative democracy and the contributions of the Committees and their efforts to this end. Hisarcıklıoğlu went on to extol the various qualities and advantages of the provinces of the region in regards to the future of the region.