Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

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.