04.09.2020 Ankara
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the TOBB Turkey Technology Meetings meeting held via video conference.
At the opening of the meeting, Hisarcıklıoğlu
said that digitalization and e-commerce are the most prominent issues in the
whole world, "They have become even more important with pandemics.
Turkey's total e-commerce volume was 136 billion liras last year. In this way,
e-commerce volume increased by 64% in the first 6 months of the year compared
to the same period last year. 56 billion liras reached 92 billion liras. In the
first half of last year, the proportion of e-commerce in general trade was 8%,
and now this ratio has reached 14%."
Noting that the global trend is in this
direction, the TOBB President said, "When we look at the world, we see
that all companies that are growing rapidly chose the e-commerce path. That's
the result of making the most of technology."
Noting that Turkey is similar to western
countries in internet connection prevalence, quality and smartphone usage
rates, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, "90% of the population has a mobile
connection. 50 million people are regularly connected to the internet every
day. At TOBB, we want to activate this potential. After the Covid-19, the
orientation to this area will continue without slowing down. E-commerce will
become a habit for the consumer who starts shopping online. Therefore, our
businesses have to move their products and services to digital media."
As TOBB, Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that they
aim to digitize the private sector and develop the next generation of
entrepreneurship and that they are preparing, companies and entrepreneurs, for
the digital world, and that they have implemented collaborations and projects
in this regard together with Vodafone, one of the world's largest global
technology companies.
Stating that they produce projects to improve
digital literacy and digital infrastructure of SMEs, Hisarcıklıoğlu said,
"We want to improve e-commerce not only from firm to consumer, but also
from the company to the company. We are also guiding them with our e-commerce
sector councils, which represent all sectors. In all sector-oriented works, our
sector councils will continue to be active."
Stating that, as TOBB and Vodafone, they are preparing
SMEs for the digital world with Turkey Technology Meetings and Digital
Transformation Movement, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, "Again in this context,
Vodafone is taking another step and starting to offer e-commerce service
package to our members. This package includes all the services SMEs need for
e-commerce, including free consultancy and training services. In addition, all
our members can access this package with a 45% discount. With Vodafone
Business, I believe that our SMEs will use digitalization more effectively to
capture the opportunities of the next new world and grow their business."
E-commerce Center CEO Merter Özdemir said that
they are organizing e-commerce and e-export trainings in cooperation with
chambers/exchanges in all 81 provinces.
Vodafone Turkey Executive Director (CEO) Colman
Deegan said that the whole