05.07.2019 Ankara
17th Ordinary General Assembly of the Organized Industrial Zones Upper Corporation (OSBÜK), the umbrella organization of all the organized industrial zones in Turkey, was held at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) Twin Towers Conference Hall. Participating in the General Assembly were TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank OSBÜK President Memis Kütükcü as well as the presidents and delegates of organized industrial zones throughout Turkey.
Hisarcıklıoğlu
in his speech at the opening of OSBÜK General Assembly stated that one of the
major success stories in Turkey are OIZs. Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that OIZs
have enabled Turkey's industrialization and ensure that industry spreads to
Anatolia, “OIZs are among the instances wherein Turkey is a role model to the
world. Our half-century OIZ experience has become a role model in our
surrounding region. Today, if we have the biggest industry, production and
exports between China and Italy, OIZs have a big share in this. Of course, we
have more work to do in this area. We must continue to develop Turkey's OIZ model.”
Stating
that OIZs in East Asia were established in larger areas and even became
separate cities, TOBB President said, “They reach almost 10 times the size of
our OIZs. They are not limited to industry and production. It is designed and
function as a center of life, education, technology and logistics. Technoparks
and technology centers are established. It includes vocational schools and
university departments. In order to keep our industry alive in the global
competitive environment, we need to develop our OIZs more. Here, OSBÜK, the
parent organization of all OIZs, comes into play. OSBÜK has gained an
institutional structure. Thus, together we continue on our way more powerfully.
Together with our government, we solve our problems.”
- Thanks to Memiş Kütükçü and
Minister Varank
Hisarcıklıoğlu
stated that they work together with Memiş Kütükçü last year in TOBB’s management,
“We have benefited immensely from experiences in production and industry
matters. He is already an industrialist. He is also the President of Konya
Chamber of Industry, one of our biggest chambers. They recently completed
another work which made our country proud. The chamber’s Innopark Konya Project
was able to reach the finals in the World Chambers Competition among the most
unusual projects. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our
Chamber and the whole team once again. President Memiş is also a great chance
for our industry and OIZs. Together with him, we brought together many
regulations that paved the way for our industry. Remember, in 2017, we worked
with our government as part of the production reform package. In this way, many
burdens on our industry - such as real estate taxes, TRT tax on electricity -
have been removed. I would like to thank the Minister and the bureaucrats of
the Ministry for the removal of the burdens on the industrialists.
- A burden of 1 billion TRY removed
Hisarcıklıoğlu
stated that at last year's prices, industrialists have recovered from a
material burden of close to 1 billion TRY a year, “But of course we have other
problems. Like the rapidly increasing energy prices in the last year, credit
interest, letter of guarantee commissions, shrinking domestic market,
collection and payment problems. Together with OSBÜK, we relayed all these to
our government and work together to find a solution. Some of our work has yielded
results. Credit support packages, additional incentives for new employment,
state-funded trade credit insurance, tax reductions in various sectors are some
of them. Our Minister of Industry and Technology, Mustafa Varank, was our voice
in the government. He expressed our troubles and supported our demands. Again
in this last period, public subsidies for industry and technology have
accelerated significantly. The number of Technoparks and R&D Centers has
increased. KOSGEB, TUBITAK, have become much more effective works. The
architect of all these is Mustafa Varank, Minister of Industry and Technology.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Minister, who has always been with
our industrialists, on behalf of all of us, and may Allah be pleased with their
efforts.”
Referring
to the results of the studies, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “57% percent of our members
benefited from the credit support packages announced one after the other.
Support packages, additional incentives for new employment and state-funded
commercial credit insurance came into play.”
After
that, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they will continue to work
together and effectively in the cooperation of TOBB-OSBÜK and said that they
will fight together so that industrialists can produce more and win more.
- Minister of Industry and
Technology Mustafa Varank
In
his speech, Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank said, “Although
a very small amount, there are complaints about the renting process of some
organized industrial zones. OIZs in the service of our industrialists certainly
need to be seen as public spaces. I will never allow rent-seeking.”
Varank,
stated that great tasks fall to entrepreneurs and industrialists in Turkey’s
goal to become one of the world's largest 10 economies.
Varank,
stating that with Turkey's immense and sophisticated OIZ experience, “During
this process, our OIZs have attained a vision that will help to integrate our
industry with the world and increase our competitiveness. They not only enlarged
themselves, but served as the engine of growth for our industry.”
- 7 billion TL loan for OIZ
projects
Varank
stated that with the appropriate investment areas allocated as the Ministry and
the support and facilities provided, they created a unique investment
environment for industrialists and went on:
“During
the 40-year period between 1962 and 2002, only 80 OIZ projects were completed,
the number of OIZs we implemented in the last 15 years was 120. We need to
strive for this, we need vision, determination and diligence, and most
importantly we have to support our industrialists and entrepreneurs, and I want
to express proudly that we have never left you alone in this regard. We have enabled
the use of loans to the amount of 7 billion TRY. Again by registering 314 OIZs so
far, we have ensured legal standing for them.”
Varank
pointed out that there are 92 OIZ projects in the Investment Program of 2019,
and said, “We will allow over 1.5 billion TRY to be spent for these projects. More
than 3,000 parcels have been started to be built in these areas. “Allocations
are in progress.”
Varank
reported that 1,900,000 people were employed in the 53,177 parcels that went
into production and said that they managed to increase the number of employees
in OIZs by 100,000 in just the last year and that they aim to reach 2.5 million
employees in OIZs by 2023.
- OSBÜK President Memiş Kütükcü
OSBÜK
President Memiş Kütükcü said that they are pursuing a new and higher value
added industrialization model with the Ministry of Industry and Technology.
Kütükçü
said, “We need this for a more sustainable growth model which produces more
wealth. We need new models, new beginnings for our industrial zones, which have
been serving the planned industrialization of the country for more than Half a
century, becoming the most successful production regime of Turkey.”
Emphasizing
that the new generation OIZs will not just be structures that provide
infrastructure and land services to the industrialists, Kütükcü said that they
will make these centers producing services to the common problems of the
industrialists.
Kütükcü
stated that as OSBÜK, they will provide technical support to OIZs which have
not completed their institutional capacity in fields such as project management
and financial planning, especially in the fields of law and legislation.
Kütükcü
said that there are 13 technical commissions in OSBÜK such as legislation,
electricity, natural gas, zoning, vocational training and environment.
“We
are working on a new dues calculation that will ease our inactive OIZs where
the dues of OIZs are evaluated with 3-4 different parameters such as occupancy
rates and square meter sizes. We plan to complete this study before the end of
2019. Thus, we will be able to produce a permanent, fair and effective service
for our community. We will have a structure which can better serve our
community.”
- Memiş Kütükçü re-elected
president
As
per the election held at the General Assembly of OSBÜK, Memiş Kütükcü was
re-elected as president.