Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB President Hisarciklioglu in his speech, thanked women entrepreneurs for their gracious visits and said, “We have completed our General Assembly. Now it is time for the Turkish private sector to start working together, both domestically and internationally.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu expressed his pleasure in the first Minister of Commerce of the Presidential Government System being a name from within the TOBB community, “The President has announced the first cabinet.

Ms. Ruhsar Pekcan became Trade Minister of one a cabinet of historical importance.

From the days we established with the 500 members of the Women Entrepreneurs Board in 2007, we came to the days when the deputy president of our organization is the first Minister of Commerce for a new term. The appointment of Ms. Pekcan as Minister of Trade is an indication of the high reputation our boards have. I strongly believe that Ms. Pekcan's ministry will make very important contributions to help women take their place in business life.”

- The planted seed has sprouted

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that, TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council is the most comprehensive and effective structure, to increase the number of women entrepreneurs and to support existing women entrepreneurs working in Turkey, “In 2007 we planted a seed. We organized 81,000 women entrepreneurs. This seed has now sprouted. One of us is sitting on the seat to direct the Ministry of Trade of Turkey today. We are all proud of this.”

- 5 main activities to develop women's entrepreneurship

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that activities were carried out under 5 main topics to develop women's entrepreneurship:

“The first is networking. Because a good network is one of the keys to success in business life. You are actively participating in the Future Power Entrepreneurs Forum, which has been uninterrupted for 7 years. You ensure Turkey's most successful entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs meet. You took part in the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, organized in April 2018 and attended by over 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors and opinion leaders from abroad. You are encouraged to develop women's international networks. You represented the Turkish business woman in international organizations such as Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Organization for Economic Cooperation, United Nations Women's Empowerment, International Women Entrepreneurship Initiative.

The second is competence. You have done many successful activities to improve the skills of women.

With the Women Writing the Future Project, you helped 1400 women acquire application software development skills. With the My Sister Project, you continue to work for 9,000 women to receive financial literacy and business management training. All the organizations with projects aiming to strengthen women economically, especially the most important technology companies in the world, are in queueing up to establish partnership with you.

Financing is third. You have worked to facilitate the access of women entrepreneurs to finance.

With the KGF channel, we provide bail up to a maximum of 2.5 million TRY in credit applications of companies that were established less than two years ago and have a woman with a minimum of 50% ownership.

Fourth, you have been lobbying for woman entrepreneur friendly policies. You have mobilized Governorships and Municipalities. You have implemented many projects jointly with local public institutions. We’ve relayed the results of your work and the reports you prepared to the ministries. We have provided affirmative action for women in government support.

Fifth, we increased the visibility of female entrepreneurial role models. We’ve organized Turkey’s Women Power Meetings to encourage young women to become entrepreneurs. We organized well-attended meetings in the provinces in Anatolia with Turkey's most successful female entrepreneurs. We encourage Turkey's successful women entrepreneurs to participate in the entrepreneurship competitions abroad. With all of these examples and many others which I did not mention, you’ve changed Turkey. You have ensured that women have more say in the economy.

In 2007, the rate of women in all employers in Turkey was 4.5%. In 2017, this ratio is close to 10%. This is your success, your work. You have also achieved significant increases in the number of women in the elected leaders of the TOBB community. But not enough. We cannot be satisfied with this. We have to work hard to make the women who make the half of the population equal to the men in the economy. By your efforts; Women's social position will be further strengthened, women entrepreneurs will have access to far more resources, and more effective policies will be passed on to improve public entrepreneurship.”