04.11.2020 Ankara
M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, president of the Union of Chambers and Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), said they will guide women entrepreneurs by establishing the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs, where women entrepreneurs who are role models will tell their success stories.
Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the TOBB Women
Entrepreneurs Board Consultation Meeting held with Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan
using video conferencing method.
TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said at the
opening of the meeting that the pandemic brings opportunities as well as
difficulties, “We saw how important digital transformation is in this process.
We work with our Ministry of Commerce in many areas to promote women
entrepreneurship and increase the number of women entrepreneurs. Women
entrepreneur network meetings run by our ministry are held locally by our
Provincial Women Entrepreneurs Councils. By actively participating in meetings,
they are both improving their business environment and learning about support
and incentives for women's entrepreneurship.”
With the internet-based platform created in
cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce in cooperation with Facebook, SMEs,
especially women entrepreneurs, expressing the incentives and supports they may
need during the pandemic, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We are actively using and
following up with the e-commerce and export platforms that our Ministry of
Commerce implemented during the pandemic. After that, we need to bring up
innovative projects that focus on digitalization in our Women Entrepreneurs Councils.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu said that more than 1,500 women
and young entrepreneurs participated in the certified e-commerce trainings they
organized in June on e-Commerce, that in connection with this training, they
developed projects for women entrepreneurs who would engage in e-commerce for
the first time by meeting with marketplaces, and through these projects, more
than 1,000 entrepreneurs started e-commerce for the first time by moving their
business to digital media.
Hisarcıklıoğlu explained that they are also
developing projects for entrepreneurs who want to establish their own
e-commerce site, “As of September, we have begun offering an e-commerce
ecosystem with all its integrations. We've digitized all our training. We have
given tens of thousands of entrepreneurs access to the information they need.”
Stating that they have started a new project,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We are setting up the Women Entrepreneurs Academy to
guide our women entrepreneurs on this journey, where our role model women entrepreneurs
tell their success stories. This was essentially one of your demands. We're all
going to bring this to life. I expect all our board members to support this
Academy, which we will establish so that our women entrepreneurs to have easy
access to all the knowledge and experiences they may need in daily life.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out the need for companies
founded by women entrepreneurs to receive affirmative action for years in order
to benefit more from public tenders, “In this context, the number of
entrepreneurial women can be increased with the price advantage and quota
applications seen similarly in other countries,” adding that they expect
support from Trade Minister Pekcan on this issue.
Noting that Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan has
contributed greatly to Women Entrepreneurs Councils coming so far,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Many of our women entrepreneurs took you as an example
and you have become a role model for them. Today, 7,000 board members organized
in 81 provinces are in the field as Turkey's largest and most comprehensive
network of women entrepreneurs. They're working hard to raise awareness of
women's entrepreneurship. With the various training, activities and promotions
carried out by our Women Entrepreneur Council, the number of women
entrepreneurs reached 142,000. The number of women councilors in our Chambers
and Exchanges has reached 235 and the number of women representatives on the
professional committee has reached 800. There have been Parliamentary
Representatives coming from the Councils. Ruhsar Pekcan, Vice Chairman of the
Board, has been our Minister of Commerce. Previously, the work carried out by two
separate ministries, now under the single ministry. You successfully manage
many important duties, such as both domestic trade and customs and foreign
trade. We're so proud of you. Mrs. Minister, we wish your continued success.”
Noting that TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Board
Chairman Nurten Öztürk is the founder of the first domestic fuel company Opet, one
of the leading companies in Turkey, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Today Opet, number
one in terms of hygiene, has Mrs. Öztürk to thank for it. She is also an active
and dynamic entrepreneur who has successfully implemented many social
responsibility projects and has come up with ideas in all areas from education
to culture. I hope that together with her, we will take women's
entrepreneurship to a much higher level.”
- Minister Pekcan
Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan also said that
since the beginning of the pandemic, they have taken many measures to continue
trade with the least damage and without interruption, and noted that they have
carried out many important studies, from contactless trade to virtual trade
delegations and virtual fairs, from increasing the capacity of Eximbank
supports to support e-commerce.
Evaluating the recent positive economic
indicators, especially exports, Pekcan said, “In October, we announced the
highest monthly export figure of all time with $17.3 billion. Export surged to
87.9% in October and gold to 95.3%. Foreign Trade Expectations Surveys also
gave very positive indicators for the last quarter. These are positive signs of
how Turkey will rise apart from pandemic compared to other countries.”
“We hope that with the efforts of all our
business people and our women entrepreneurs, we will be one of the countries
that survives the pandemic process with the least damage by continuing and improving
this performance by working hand in hand via state-private sector cooperation,”
Pekcan said, referring to the robustness shown by Turkey's economy despite IMF and
World Trade Organization data estimates of shrinkage in the global economy and
trade.
- “We must increase the participation rate of
our women in the workforce”
Minister Pekcan, sharing information about the
number of women employers, said, “According to official data, the number of women
businesses has risen to 155,000 as of July. It is on an upwards trend ahead of
pandemic but far behind OECD averages. The proportion of our women joining the
workforce in Turkey was 34% as of July, compared to 68% in the EU and US, and
65% in the OECD. We have to increase our women's participation in the workforce
and increase women's entrepreneurship and capture OECD averages in
participation in the workforce in order to increase our social well-being and
to be among the countries with high levels of prosperity as soon as possible
with our strategic efforts and cooperation.”
Pekcan said that women entrepreneurs should
prioritize the new era, digitalization, global economy and e-commerce in the
work and projects they carry out.
Pekcan noted that according to the “Women and
Trade Report” prepared in cooperation by the DTO and the World Bank in
developing countries, 33% of the employment in companies with international
trade are comprised of women, while in those which are not internationally
traded, it is 24%.
For companies participating in global supply
chains, women's participation rate in the registered workforce is 50% higher
than other companies, Pekcan said, “We as the Ministry, with this in mind, are
acting with the goal of making more of our women entrepreneurs, business people
and exporters.”
Minister Pekcan also mentioned the ministry's
recent work on women's entrepreneurship, pointing out that they are
coordinating the “Directorate of Export of Women and Youth Entrepreneurship”
which they have established.
More than 3,000 entrepreneurs participated in
10 trainings in 2020 within the Export Academy Program, which was launched
under the coordination of this agency, Pekcan said that together with TOBB,
they reached all women entrepreneurs on a provincial level with the Women
Entrepreneur Network Project, and that they met with 1,200 women and young
entrepreneurs in their women entrepreneur network program in 35 provinces as of
the end of October.
Pekcan expressed satisfaction that the Export
Academy Program with the Women Entrepreneur Network Project was put among the
examples of good practice by the SheTrades Outlook platform of the
International Trade Center created by the United Nations and the World Trade
Organization.
Working to make National Women Exporter Network
Platform and Angel Investor Platforms available to entrepreneurs, Pekcan said
that they continue to work here to make women and young entrepreneurs into
exporters.
Pekcan, touching on Virtual Trade Academy,
E-Commerce Academy, E-Commerce Consultant, Easy Export Platform, Women's
Cooperatives, said: “With the cooperation of the state-private sector-nation,
we have no doubt that we will come out of this pandemic by strengthening our
position in global value chains and global supply chains as Turkey. We are
confident that we will continue our economic development and development
process in line with our own national goals. I would also like to thank Rifat
Hisarcıklıoğlu, TOBB President, for his support to our women entrepreneurs.”
Nurten Öztürk, chairman of the TOBB Board of
Women Entrepreneurs, said they want to increase the number of women
entrepreneurs by talking about the projects they are planning in the new era.
Öztürk stated that inequality is reflected in every area of life. Öztürk asked
Minister Pekcan for support for affirmative action for women entrepreneurs.