Şekib Avdagiç, President of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, said: “In 2021, a very important opportunity brought by the pandemic that will increase our exports will be ‘cross-border company-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce’. I call on our entrepreneurs, we must take our place in this trade that will grow like a snowball on time.”
Commenting on the business world’s view of 2021 and digitalization trends, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce President Şekib Avdagiç said that with 2021, not only a new year has entered, but probably a new decade that will be called a “new era” in the future.
Stating that cross-border B2C e-commerce is the most popular international online trade method of recent years, Avdagiç said, “Cross-border B2C e-commerce is also called micro-export. It means buying and selling your product in online stores on both national and international borders. Anyone who has an entrepreneurial spirit and thinks that they have a product or service to sell can do this trade. All you need is to register as a seller on a global e-commerce platform, a powerful marketplace. And then make a deal with an air cargo company. To ensure that your products you market reach Europe in 1 day and the USA in 2 days by air cargo.”
Pointing out that a very rapid rise is expected in e-commerce sales from company to consumer, called “cross-border B2C e-commerce” in 2021, Avdagiç said: “The only indisputable fact during the pandemic is that the new normal is now ‘online’. As a great opportunity, the size of the global cross-border B2C e-commerce, i.e. e-export market, exceeded 790 billion dollars in 2019. This figure has increased further in the pandemic, although it has not yet been disclosed. In 2026, the cross-border B2C e-commerce market is expected to reach 4 trillion 820 billion dollars. So there is a huge cake here. It seems very clear that the increase in e-commerce is not arithmetic, but trigonometric. In other words, it will grow like a snowball beyond doubling.”
“Now is the time to embark on an electronic expedition”
Stating that cross-border e-commerce is reshaping the future of trade, Şekib Avdagiç said, “In 2021, a very important opportunity brought by the pandemic that will increase our exports will be ‘cross-border B2C electronic trade’. I call on our entrepreneurs, we must take our place in this trade that will grow like a snowball on time. If we do not take our place here on time, if we do not make our businesses compatible with e-commerce, it will become impossible for us to catch up with those who go ahead. Let’s not forget that going to the feet of the customer is no longer understood as ‘getting on an airplane and traveling from market to market’. On the contrary, going to the feet of the customer has turned into opening an international store in online environments.”
“As Turkey, we will have two main veins in global trade with ‘traditional suitcase trade’ and ‘fast e-export’, which revitalize our real sector,” Avdagiç said, “Therefore, in our opinion, now is the time to embark on an electronic expedition. It is time to bring our products to the world markets through online networks. I call on all our members and entrepreneurs to be an active member of cross-border e-commerce. I want them to know that as ITO, we will give them all kinds of support.”
“The services sector should be placed separately within the measures”
Explaining that as ITO, they created the working fiction of 2021 on digital development and focused on e-commerce activities, Avdagiç said that in this context, they carried out many projects from moving the supplier days online to “My Digital SME”. Emphasizing that as the business world, they demanded that the tax obligations postponed to businesses that are kept closed due to the epidemic be suspended as long as they remain closed, Avdagiç said, “We especially expect rental support to be provided to all businesses that are kept closed. Such incentives are the biggest source of motivation for our real sector in production, marketing and exports. Therefore, its continuity is important.”
“The vaccination issue is both a health and an economic issue”
Regarding the vaccination efforts against coronavirus, ITO President Şekib Avdagiç noted the following: “Countries that successfully complete COVID-19 vaccination will be ahead in every sense in the fight against the pandemic. They will gain an advantage in terms of supply security. Likewise, they will be ahead in terms of tourism movements. For this reason, the vaccine issue is both a health and a very important economic issue for Turkey. We believe that our Ministry of Health will approach the issue with this sensitivity. We expect the vaccination process that started from the previous day to continue successfully and quickly.”
According to experts, the vaccination rate in European and Western markets will reach 60 percent by the second quarter of 2021, Avdagiç said, adding that the rapid growth of Western Europe and the development of a high level of immunity in a short time is very important for Turkey. Avdagiç said, “Western European countries continue to exist as our traditional export market. In the face of these developments, it would not be surprising to exceed the export target of 184 billion dollars set for 2021 and increase it to 190 billion dollars.”
ITO’s weekly newspaper archive will be opened to the internet
Şekib Avdagiç stated that they celebrated the 139th anniversary of ITO on January 14th and on this occasion, they will put the old issues of the Chamber newspaper Istanbul Ticaret, which started to be published in 1885, into service as a digital archive. Stating that the scanning process of tens of thousands of pages of the newspaper, which was published in Ottoman Turkish from 1885 to 1928 and then in Latin alphabet, has been completed, Avdagiç said, “The digitization process is almost over. Their software and software interfaces have been created and tests are being conducted. Enthusiasts and researchers who want to get information about the economic and commercial life of our country in the Imperial and Republican periods will be able to access the entire archive of our newspaper at ‘istanbulticaret.org.tr’. They will also be able to search in four languages. Hopefully, our entire website will be available in February.”
Source : https://www.dunya.com/ekonomi/ito-baskani-avdagicten-girisimcilere-sinir-asan-e-ticaret-cagrisi-haberi-607132
