Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

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 15^th 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 95^th 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.