The public is condemning all exporters because of a few "bad apples," but the export industry is actually a hard-working sector, a Turkish trade official said.
Foreign Trade Undersecretary Kursad Tuzmen said Turkey has honest exporters who have managed to sign export deals worth $27 billion, and he is confident that this can be increased to $50 billion in the long term, the Anatolian news agency reported.
Tuzmen was responding to questions about fictitious exports during a panel discussion Tuesday on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at Ankara's Middle East Technical University. Tuzmen said fictitious exports were the domain of the judiciary and he could not make a detailed statement on the subject. Turkey is cracking down on phony enterprises set up as exporters.
Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu also spoke at the event. He said his ministry and the State Planning Organization (DPT) were revising the definition of "priority development region."
Tanrikulu said that SMEs symbolized entrepreneurship talent, flexibility, change, continuous restructuring and risk-taking. He warned that the 200,000 SMEs which constituted 95 percent of all businesses, 50 percent of employment and 45 percent of value added would be harmed by new developments and miss new opportunities created by these developments if the necessary precautions were not taken.
Our ministry follows all new economic developments closely and translates them into plans and programs suited to Turkey's industrial structure while formulating new industrialization policies with the contribution of public institutions and private enterprises," said Tanrikulu. He said the current practice of providing government support to businesses in priority development regions has to be changed because almost half of
Turkey is included within these regions.
He added that priority development regions would be redefined according to 21 selected criteria and that the philosophy of government support and incentives had to be modernized in compliance with the needs of the day. For SMEs, the framework of an understanding that favors risk-taking entrepreneurship should be established. Tuzmen noted that SMEs could accelerate Turkey's development, and that e-commerce was important for SMEs because it reduces costs and presents opportunities for opening up to world markets. He said the world was now a single market and that borders are losing their significance.
Tuzmen said that the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat encouraged SMEs to establish sector foreign trade companies. Ten SMEs can band together to form a sector foreign trade company for export and marketing, but this number drops to five in priority development regions.
There are currently 37 sector foreign trade companies with 1,257 partners, and they will merged in an association to be called SEDER. Tuzmen said that adequate support had not come from the European Union for SMEs but that now the DTM was devising new projects to provide this support. Tuzmen also said that SMEs should be redefined and added that not only manufacturing but agriculture, tourism and service sector businesses must be included within the new definition. – (Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
