Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board Vice President Ayhan Zeytinoğlu, relaying TOBB Chairman M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu's greetings, said that close monitoring of the problems of the sector has been ongoing throughout the pandemic.

At the meeting, which was held with the participation of representatives of the public and private sectors, Council President Vecdet Salgın made an assessment of the sector and said that there were difficulties for the sector during the pandemic process, but that there had been an increase in demand for glass products used in furniture, home appliances, automotive and construction sectors recently. He added that demand growth in the bottle and packaging glass industry is the same and the sector is reviving. Salgın noted that the increase in glass export figures is gratifying and the export deficit experienced during the pandemic process is almost balanced out.

The meeting discussed the opening of glass-related departments where both theoretical and practical training is given together in vocational high schools to address the shortage of intermediate staff.

TOBB Executive Board Vice President Ayhan Zeytinoğlu noted that the diversity of programs in the school, teachers and course qualifications can be determined in accordance with the demands of the Chambers and Exchanges, taking into account the sector needs in each province in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education and TOBB. The Council decided conducting negotiations with the Chambers to include the courses needed in the glass sector in the school programs.

Another agenda item of the meeting was that broken and cracked windshields being included in the scope of “slight defect” in the inspection of motor vehicles.  As the Council, members decided to have the necessary discussions with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, arguing that such defects should be considered severe defects to be in line with practices in Europe.

At the end of the meeting, Council Members were informed about the work of the European Green Deal by IKV Secretary General Çiğdem Nas.