Attending the Regional Consultation Meeting held in Manisa with the Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu called on the business world to make use of the opportunities provided by the government, especially regarding employment. Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In the last 2-3 months, there have been positive developments in foreign currency and interest rates. The decrease in bank loans came to an end.  In short, compared to yesterday,  we are able to better see ahead clearly. 

The Regional Consultation Meeting was held at the Anemon Hotel hosted by Manisa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Manisa Commodity Exchange. TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, in his speech, stated that many of their wishes, formulated working with the Presidents of the chambers and commodity exchanges, have been fulfilled by the government in the last few months with Minister Pekcan's support and follow-up. Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that various measures were taken to reduce employment costs, alleviate financial burdens and bring about motion to the markets, “A new system to accelerate VAT returns is about to enter into effect. With the participation of the President of the Republic of Turkey and our Ministers, we conveyed the issues that are on our agenda to the government at the TOBB Turkey Economic Council on January 21st. Also at the Summit, the President of the Republic of Turkey received the employment pledges from our Chambers and Commodity Exchanges. Manisa announced its pledge to provide new employment to 60,000 there; I believe you will succeed. Our government has taken steps to support employment. For example, the short-working allowance has come into effect. Now you don’t need to decrease employment because business slows down. Apply for it and the Fund pays the fees for the first three months. So far 55,000 employees have benefited from it. Second, new incentives have come to additional employment. For example, for every additional employment until April 30th, the wage-tax-premium will be taken on by the government; you will only need to pay salaries for the next 9 months. These supports are unlike any seen before. On Monday, we are holding TOBB Turkey sectoral Economic Council with our government. There, we will launch these. Hopefully we will make the most of it and increase employment. Additionally, under the leadership of our Minister, we started an export push. With the Trade Ministry, we have established export support offices in 16 provinces. Our chambers, through these offices, will provide guidance to exporters in all matters.”

- SME share increased in Eximbank

Reminding that, in the past, one of the requests from companies was to make Eximbank more active, the TOBB President said, “Thanks to the work of Minister Pekcan, our SMEs’ access to Eximbank has been facilitated. In 2017, SME's share in Eximbank loans was 53%. Now the SME weight has reached 71%.

Furthermore, with the instructions of our esteemed Minister, Eximbank is beginning to offer cheaper investment financing to our producers-exporters.” Stating that, in this context, 9 leasing companies signed a financing protocol of 200 million USD, Hisarcıklıoğlu thanked Minister Pekcan for her continued, result-oriented, work in consultation with the business world.

Look, in the last 25 years, we've had many crises and much turbulence. We overcame them and moved forward. I hope that we will join hands again and bring our country back to its rightful place. We're going to be one of the largest economies in the world. As long as we don't alienate each other. Let's not view anybody else as the other. Let us preserve the unity and solidarity of our country, of our nation. That's when we will overcome this bump in the road and continue on our way.”

- Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan

In her speech, Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan stated that provincial trade directors would be more active in the new term, standing by consumers and honest tradesmen.

Speaking at the Regional Consultation Meeting in Manisa, Pekcan said that they are working to make Turkey a developed, strong, stable and reputable country, and they attach great importance to exporting more, producing more value added products and digitization in trade.

Pekcan reported that they have opened export support offices throughout the country to support trade, training companies which want to export; they have increased branches of Eximbank which are financing exporters and they want more SMEs to benefit from Eximbank.

Pekcan pointed out that they are working aimed at women and young entrepreneurs. She invited women and young people to take advantage of these opportunities.

Pekcan, stating that they’ve held a meeting with the trade directors of 81 provinces the previous day and went on:

“In April, we hope to hold have a meeting with our trade advisers and trade attachés from all over the world. Our provincial trade directors will now be more active. They will stand by the public, the consumer and the honest tradesmen. In order to maintain that balance, our trade advisers will be more active; they will work to expand the horizons of our exporters and contribute to Turkey’s exports.

Our goal is not only to increase exports. We are also successfully implementing import policies that will protect the domestic and national producers. We closed last year at a record level with an export figure of 168 billion USD. But most importantly, we have brought the ratio of exports to imports from 57% to 75%. In just January, this figure is at 85%."

Reporting that they are providing exporters with e-commerce and e-export training, Pekcan stated they are continuing to work on retail trade law, asking for Manisa to pledge that it will reach 10 billion $ in exports by the end of the year.