25.12.2016 Gaziantep
TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, speaking at the Gaziantep Chamber of Industry Awards ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek and Customs and Trade Minister Bülent Tüfenkci, put emphasis on unity and solidarity, stating that Gaziantep has succeeded on many fronts despite all manner of difficulties.
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “The
global crisis on one side, wars in neighboring countries on the other, avenues
of export are blocked. There is no other city in the world that could achieve
this economic success other than Gaziantep.”
Attending the Gaziantep's
Stars Award Ceremony were TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Deputy Prime
Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Customs and Trade Minister Bülent Tüfenkci, chambers
and commodity exchanges chairpersons and members.
Hisarcıklıoğlu said
in his opening speech that since the global crisis, in only the last 7 years,
Gaziantep has achieved great success. TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Gaziantep
did this despite the global crisis, wars in neighboring countries, export avenues
becoming blacked, hosting 320,000 refugees - 3 times more than all 27 EU
countries combined. I’ll say it clearly: No other city in the world could have
done this. Gaziantep deserves all incentives and support it gets. Gaziantep undertook
a great burden during Turkey's war of independence. Now, Gaziantep is carrying
a great burden on the path to prosperity.”
- Gratitude for the EKK decisions
Hisarcıklıoğlu, speaking
about the difficulties facing the business community, said, “Especially in
regards to the events of the recent past, the economy has been negatively impacted.
I hope that the worst is behind us. During this period the government took very
important steps to open the way for the private sector. They did this with
great understanding, consulting with the private sector. There are very
important items among the latest EKK decisions. In particular, decisions were
taken to revolutionize investments, financing, employment and support for
exports.
We would like to
thank the President of the Republic, our Prime Minister, our Minister and our
government for these reforms.
- Employment and financing opportunities
Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating
that the private sector also has duties to fulfill, said, “We need to use the
possibilities at hand. As TOBB and the Chamber-Exchange community, we must
contribute. The biggest problem is the cash shortage in the market and high
interest rates. We are not exploiting the opportunity.
We’ve made
innovations in finance. TOBB and its 365 chambers and commodity exchanges
combined its resources. Denizbank-Ziraat Bank will provide credit with an
annual interest rate of 9.90% and a monthly interest rate of 0.83%, up to 100
thousand liras. KGF will vouch for 85%. The psychological threshold of the
banks has been broken. TOBB-İŞKUR kicked off the vocational training
mobilization. According to a survey, 33% haven’t heard of it. This is on-site
training, free employment.
Training for 1 year on-site
at the workplace. Paid for by the government. Daily pay of 50 TRY and
insurance. No employment condition at the end of the 1 year period. If the
employer chooses to employ at the end of this period, there will be no
insurance premiums for 42 months. This way our country will employ 500,000 people
in the private sector. Vocational Proficiency certification has become
mandatory in 48 occupations, including construction. There is a penalty of 500
TL per person non-certified employee. We are conducting the exams and issuing certificates.
We come to the workplace, conduct the exam which is paid for by the government,
we provide free training beforehand. If you certify your employees, you will
not pay their insurance premiums for a year. New hires with certificates enjoy
4.5 years without employer’s insurance premiums.”
- Deputy Prime Minister Simsek and Minister Tüfenkci
Deputy Prime Minister
Mehmet Şimşek also spoke at the ceremony, stating that industrialists were all
heroes, congratulating them on all the services they’ve rendered whether they
won awards or not.
“We are going through
a very difficult period. But there’s never cause for pessimism because the
future of the country is brilliant. We will be successful in this process,”
said Şimşek pointing out that Turkey remained strong and moved forward despite
the 2008 economic global crisis, the EU debt crisis and the Middle East crisis.
“We can’t be
pessimistic in spite of all these shocks, Turkey's economy is resilient; its
foundations are strong,” Şimşek remarked, touching on recent terror attacks and
the treacherous coup attempt on the 15th July.
Customs and Trade Minister
Bülent Tüfenkci stated that he is happy to be a part of the event where the
success of the Gaziantep industrialist is crowned at the 95th anniversary
of the liberation of Gaziantep from enemy invasion. Tüfenkci said, “It is you
who’ve made Gaziantep precious in the eyes of the world. It is your
entrepreneurial soul. The biggest motivation of industrialists is to produce,
to sell what they produce. Your entrepreneurial spirit is for both the region
and for Turkey. You are the grandkids of the heroes of the Antep who fought heroically
against all kinds of difficulties in the War of Independence. You are hardy
people. We will open the way for you, we will succeed as long as we stand
together.”
GSO Chairman Adil
Sani Konukoğlu said that despite the unfavorable global and regional conditions
having continually grown for 27 consecutive quarters, the Turkish economy has
shrunk in the third quarter of the year.