15.03.2019 İstanbul
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the Employment Campaign is on the agenda of Chambers / Exchanges and that they are working towards stated objectives day and night, “The first indicators are very positive. In employment, we’ve initiated positive momentum. I hope more will come soon.”
Within
the scope of the Employment Mobilization, under the auspices of President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan, initiated by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services
and TOBB, the Employment Mobilization 2019 İstanbul Meeting was held at the
Haliç Congress Center hosted by the İstanbul Governorship and the İstanbul
Metropolitan Municipality.
TOBB
President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that he strongly condemns the racist
and fascist attack on Muslims during Friday Prayer in New Zealand.
Hisarcıklıoğlu,
reminding that the President Erdoğan called on the business world to launch a
new employment campaign at the TOBB Turkey Economy Summit, said “Following
this, we worked day and night with the Minister of Labor. Then we came together
with the Minister of Treasury and the Minister of Finance. Thanks to the
executive and visionary approaches of our ministers, a new, comprehensive and
bold stimulus package was prepared. For new employers, the previously unavailable
unpaid salary support and tax and premium deductions were introduced. For those
having economic difficulties and businesses slowing, short-time working
allowances were introduced.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
stated that the architect of all of these is the Minister of Family, Labor and
Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk.
Stating
that the Employment Mobilization has been initiated with Minister Selçuk on
February 25th, the TOBB President stated that they have undertaken
this endeavor with 365 Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in 81 provinces and 160
counties and that they’ve established support and incentive promotion centers
in every province within Chambers and Exchanges.
- Intensive work for promotion of
the campaign
Hisarcıklıoğlu
emphasized that they introduced the campaign throughout the country and that
they are working to ensure the widest participation. “Thanks to our Labor
Minister Selçuk, the public also gave great support to this endeavor. The local
organization of our Ministry works with us in each province. Thanks to our
governors, we are organizing joint meetings with District Governors,
Accountants and Financial Advisors under their leadership. We reach out the
biggest and highest employing companies in the provinces and meet one on one.
We are talking about employment mobilization in local media. We follow all
these works closely and note them all, which is the result of only 15 days of
work.
As
TOBB, we have invited all our members to participate in the campaign through
our Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in 81 provinces. I've seen billboard ads
coming to this meeting. Very nice, congratulations. These ads were produced by
the Istanbul CC, Istanbul CE, Istanbul CI and Deniz CC together. Our chambers and
exchanges in the other 80 provinces are also promoting in their provinces and
districts with similar advertisements. We also prepared a commercial film to be
published at the national level. We started using it on social media. Hopefully
it will air on TV soon as well.”
Pointing
out that they have great goals, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As you well know what is
said in our faith: Man only gets what he works for. That's what falls to us. Effort
from us, appreciation from Allah.”
- “We must stand with employment
against unemployment”
Calling
again on all the business world and employers, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said,
“Have confidence in Turkey's strength and future. Participate in the employment
campaign. Take advantage of these historical supports. Don’t say, ‘We are small
company, what difference would 1 person we hire make?’ We all must stand with
employment against unemployment.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
pointed out that he speaks with the heads of chambers and the commodity
exchanges individually every day and that all of their agenda is focused on the
Employment Campaign, that each province has set its goal and works day and
night towards it.
Indicating
that the first indicators are very positive, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In
employment, we’ve initiated positive momentum. I hope more will come soon. We
can get more up-to-date good news from the Minister.”
"Those
who yesterday profited most are those who invested in and provided employment
in Turkey,” said the TOBB President and went on, “Those who profit the most
tomorrow will be those who are investing and provide employment in Turkey today.
By hiring at least one unemployed citizen, you will improve your business, and contribute
to economic growth, as well as be a winner of tomorrow by investing in the
future of Turkey. We have never lost fertility nor hope in these lands. We will
not lose them now. To say hello to a bountiful and hopeful future, we say there
is business here, there is livelihood here, there is future here.”
- Minister Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk
Zehra
Zümrüt Selçuk, the Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services, emphasized in
her speech the need to work within the spirit of mobilization to reach the
economic targets set in the globalized economy.
Describing
that employment targets could be achieved with the cooperation of public
institutions and private sector, Selçuk said that by investing more in domestic
and national production, it should continue to open new employment areas by
reducing dependence on foreign economy.
Selçuk,
stating that if Turkey’s real potential is uncovered, it could easily be one of
the world's 10 strongest economies, said, “This region offers us many
possibilities in terms of economic wealth and opportunities. We will evaluate
them together; we will create possibilities and opportunities together. Istanbul,
in addition to being a dominant city for many ancient civilizations, is the
locomotive of our industry with the added value it produces in trade and
economy.”
- Incentive supports
Minister
Selçuk said that in December, through employer, employee and public consensus, the
net minimum wage for 2019 was determined.
Stating
that while many of the world's countries including the European Union were experiencing
employment losses with the devastating effects of the global crisis in 2007,
Turkey, by increasing employment by approximately 8.3 million people since the
global financial crisis, has taken the first place among the EU countries in
terms of employment, Selcuk said, “Although the final figures haven’t been
determined but it is most likely that compared to 2018 İŞKUR data, İŞKUR
employment rates are 10% better in the first two months of this year. We
believe that we will fulfill our promise of 2.5 million jobs.”
Selçuk
also stated that they noted the promise of 1 million additional jobs from
Istanbul, adding that the Ministry supports the labor market not only with the
increase in employment but also with incentives.
- İstanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya
İstanbul
Governor Ali Yerlikaya said that a race to be the most charitable among 81
provinces began on February 2017 8th, with the second one initiated
under the slogan of, “There is business in Turkey; there is prosperity,” both
under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Yerlikaya
stated that the promises were made at the center of the business world, thus the
heart of the business world.
İstanbul
Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mevlüt Uysal also said that employment
mobilization is the fight against adversity in the economy and that İstanbul,
in terms of numbers in employment is less than one-third of Turkey overall, but
conducts 50% of export and trade.
Emphasizing
that İstanbul is far ahead of the competition in regards to value generated per
person employed, Uysal stated that İstanbul should also act as a role model for
the rest of Turkey in achieving its employment goal.
- “Incentives enable us to open
doors for halal gain”
İstanbul
Commodity Exchange (ISTIB) President Ali Kopuz also said that the public and
private sectors are been able to achieve anything when they support each other.
He said, “We, as Turkish businessmen, believe that there is people attain only
what they work for, and they act accordingly; we always work. Again, we believe
that it is only just to work in a righteous manner to earn a living and we strive
to be instrumental in opening gates for halal gains. Thanks to these
incentives, we have the opportunity to be instrumental in opening new gates of halal
earning. To this end, 8 different incentives were presented to our business
world.”
Kopuz
said, “’The world's most difficult thing is to know how to do something, while watching
someone else who doesn’t try to do it without saying anything’ says. Mevlana.
As businesspeople who know how to do their job, we must always be on the
lookout for opportunities to develop and grow our businesses.”
- “Labor laws should be made
economy-friendly”
İstanbul
Chamber of Commerce (ICC) President Şekib Avdagiç said, “We are Turkey's past,
present and future. As long as we stand, no one can undermine Turkey.”
Avdagiç
expressed his hope that the biggest employment incentives in the history of the
republic will result in the biggest recruitment in the history of the Republic.
“In order to achieve this, we must comprehensively relay these incentives to
our target, the business world. Many establishments consider the incentives to
be too good to be true. That is where the duty falls to us. We must convey that
no matter what, every incentive will be fulfilled by the government. The reason
for these incentives not being widely utilized is because they were not not
sufficiently explained, rather than the nature of the incentives. As İTO we are
doing a comprehensive promotion campaign with this in mind.”
Pointing
out that it is necessary for state departments to help businesses in a way that
is fast, facilitating, and in a matter which is not bureaucratically
frustrating. Avdagic stressed that employment mobilization would not only
reduce unemployment, but would both stimulate domestic demand and affect growth
positively.
Calling
for more comprehensive and more effective employment incentives to make
employment law more economy friendly, Avdagic said, “Our business people are
extremely unhappy with their business law cases and their results. They have to
wait for 800 days. We are trying to carry out our business with the risks that
we cannot determine nor uncontrollable. It will solve most of our business woes
to match these to EU criteria.”
- “Quality, sustainable and permanent
employment is in industry”
Erdal
Bahçıvan, Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) President, stated that industry comes
to the forefront in terms of creating added value for the economy, jobs more
importantly contributing to the economy. We strongly believe that providing
employment, creating jobs and prosperity is the cornerstone of a strong and
sustainable economy.”
Stating
that, as Industrialists, they consider it their priority to produce jobs and
prosperity for the peace and welfare of the country and society, Bahçıvan said,
“Going forward, we will maintain the same understanding and determination.”
- "Our members who utilize the
incentives will begin to profit after 3-4 months”
Tamer
Kıran, Maritime Trade Chamber (DTO) President, said, “Today, business may not
be all that well, but after 3-4 months, when our country is in a rapid growth trend
again, we will need new employees. We must prepare the employment we will need
then, today. Otherwise, it will be difficult to source qualified personnel.”
Kıran
underlined that employment made today will turn into a big investment for
tomorrow and said, “Today, our members who utilize these incentives will see
that they profit after 3-4 months and they will be a step ahead of their
competitors.”
- "We are transferring our
resources to qualified labor force”
Turkey
Exporters Council (TİM) President İsmail Gülle, stating that they put great
importance on solving the problems experienced in skilled labor in production, said,
“Quality production can be made by qualified labor, so we are transferring our
resources to this area. Together, shoulder to shoulder with our university, we
are are trying to accelerate this with comprehensive, projects, chiefly in design.”
Gülle
underlined that some of the incentives will be of great benefit in terms of
ensuring international competitiveness.
- “Let's break the employment
record in Istanbul”
Independent
Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MUSIAD) President Abdurrahman
Kaan stated that businesses with the resources are employing people without
making excuses, “But today, the new incentives, will make it even easier for
the employers and will open new avenues for employment doors.”
Kaan,
referring to the importance of Istanbul in trade, said, “As MUSIAD, with close
to 60,000 companies, we provide over 1.6 million jobs. We stand by our business
people and industrialists with 87 branches and representative offices in 93
countries with 223 contact points, in Turkey and globally. We consider the
steps taken by the government to be of the utmost importance and we have always
been staunch supporters of any effort to aid the progression of our country.”