22.12.2016 Ankara
TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu issued a call for more use of the internet in commerce, pointing to the importance of e-commerce in his speech at the Tech Dates Meeting.
Turkey Tech
Dates Ankara Conference, held in cooperation by TOBB and Turkish Economy Bank
(TEB) and organized by the Turkish E-Commerce Council and EticaretSEM, was held
at the TOBB Conference Hall. The conference started with the opening speeches by
TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Customs and Trade Minister Bülent
Tüfenkci, Deputy General Director TEB Turgut Boz and TOBB E-commerce Council
Chair Öget Kantarcı.
TOBB President
M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they are holding the first big event of the
e-commerce sector council and said that they will continue to hold Turkey Tech
Dates Meetings in Anatolian cities after this. Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We will inform
our SMEs and entrepreneur candidates about digital technologies. We will bring business
people who have succeeded in this area to meet with Anatolia. I especially urge
our young people, that when you leave this hall, think, ‘I can do it.’ The
opportunity is here, the future is here. A good idea, the right team, and the
will to work: If you bring these three together, you will succeed.”
- e-Commerce: locomotive of the new economy
Stating that
they took an important step to provide sectoral unity in e-commerce, the
locomotive of the new economy, by establishing the e-commerce council the TOBB
President said, “We now have a platform where Turkey's leading e-commerce
sites, associations and representatives of public institutions can come
together. Here, the private sector and public administration consult around the
same table. They work together to solve the problems of the sector and they
bring suggestions to public administration. I hope that the fruit of the work
of the Council will enable the industry to grow faster.”
Stating that
statistics show that we are only at the beginning of the road in e-commerce,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Only 2% of total retail trade is conducted through by
electronic media. Only 1.2 out of every 10 credit cards have been used for
online shopping. In developed countries, online retailing accounts for 10% of
the total. We are behind for today but we can close the gap quickly. If we can
use e-commerce for export again, we can expand our export range. Even now, the
average distance of our e-exports is 50% higher than our normal exports. We
have potential in this field.”
-Customs and Trade Minister Tüfenkci
Customs and
Trade Minister Bülent Tüfenkci stated that customs exemption rates are very
high for products and orders imported from abroad via e-commerce. “Orders made
from abroad up to 75 Euros can enter Turkey without taxation, which can lead to
unfair competition. We’ve reduced this limit to 30 Euros.”
Minister
Tüfenkci stated that the ministry puts great important on e-commerce, “e-Commerce
is open to the public and it is an area where we can go a long way as Turkey.”
Tüfenkci
pointed out that Turkey is behind the world in this area and has a lot of
ground to cover, saing, “There are many
reasons for this, and some of the most important reasons are some of the
constraints that we have put on the various firms which make up the
infrastructure of the IT sector.”
Turgut Boz,
Deputy General Manager of the Turkish Economy Bank, stated that the concept of
entrepreneurship, with the ever-changing information society, has become even
more prominent.