Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, speaking at the meeting held online with the wide participation of SMEs, said that SMEs are monitoring every hardship experienced by SMEs day by day through Chamber-Exchanges, Sector Councils, OIZs and entrepreneurs during the difficult period we are going through. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they relay the problems to the relevant institutions and ministers in person every evening, “Thankfully, facilitation of access to financing, tax and premium deferral, arrangements for working life, and many such demands from you came to life as a result of our follow-up. In this context, KOSGEB has ensured that KOSGEB-backed loan payments are postponed for 3 months. Thus, KOSGEB 's loan support programs of 136,000 SMEs' debt of 713 million TRY corresponding to April, May and June was deferred. Again, in this process, promotional videos for KOSGEB supports were prepared and published in order to facilitate the access of our SMEs to support."

- SMEs are the backbone of the economy

Noting that SMEs are the lifeblood of the country's economy, the TOBB President stated that the most important segment that spins the wheels of the economy are SMEs. Hisarcıklıoğlu, according to TÜİK data, there are 3.5 million SMEs, “SMEs represent 99.8% of the total number of enterprises, 74% of employment, 63% of exports, 54.1% of wages and wages, 62% of turnover. For these reasons, our SMEs are the backbone of the economy. Therefore, policies designed to develop and grow SMEs are also of great importance. The most important of these policies is access to funding. Today, KOSGEB takes on a very important task in providing SMEs access to finance. KOSGEB is an important stakeholder in which we are represent in its Executive Committee. I took this opportunity to celebrate KOSGEB's 30^th founding anniversary.”

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that they have implemented many projects together as TOBB and KOSGEB, and said that they are working together in a wide range of areas, from SME guidance, foreign business trips, fair participations to digitalization supports.