Regarding the cooperation with Google, Minister Pekcan said, “With the Tradesmen Making a Difference with Digital Transformation Project, support will be offered for the digital transformation of restaurants and cafes.”
Regarding the direct grant and rental support to be provided to tradesmen and craftsmen affected by the new type of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan said, “We anticipate that support applications that can be made via e-government will start as of the first week of January at the latest.”
In her speech at the “Tradesmen Making a Difference with Digital Transformation Program” held by video conference method in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce and Google Turkey, Pekcan stated that they continue to continue their support efforts for tradesmen and craftsmen and real person traders, who are the backbone of the economy and negatively affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Stating that important facilities have been provided to tradesmen and craftsmen in the fields of tax, employment and financing with various support mechanisms, especially the “Economic Stability Shield Package” announced in March, Pekcan said that in this period when the second wave of the epidemic is experienced, they continue their efforts to alleviate the negativities experienced by tradesmen and craftsmen without slowing down.
At this point, Pekcan stated that they have implemented the supports announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and noted the following:
“With the Presidential Decree on the supports to be provided to our tradesmen and craftsmen and real person merchants due to the coronavirus outbreak, published in the Official Gazette as of yesterday, the necessary legal infrastructure has been established for our tradesmen who are most economically affected to receive rent and income loss support. Our communiqué on how the application and support processes will be implemented was published today. We will be publishing the definitions of economic activities that will benefit from the support on our Ministry’s website today, together with NACE codes in the fields of activity with our communiqué.”
Minister Pekcan stated that they will provide the supports included in the Presidential Decree for 3 months and used the following statements:
“We are taking the necessary measures and carrying out the necessary work so that our tradesmen can apply for support in the fastest and simplest way possible. In order to finalize the support applications to be made on e-government in the fastest way possible, our Ministry units and all our business partners in this process, including the Presidential Digital Transformation Office, are working to complete the necessary technical infrastructure. We anticipate that support applications that can be made via e-government will start as of the first week of January at the latest. We will continue to provide all kinds of information and support that our artisans and craftsmen will need in close communication and cooperation with our artisan organizations to ensure that all these processes are carried out in a healthy manner.”
Collaboration with Google for the digital transformation of tradesmen
Stating that the “Tradesmen Making a Difference with Digital Transformation Program” is highly compatible with the Ministry’s policy priorities and projects to date, Minister Pekcan said that as the Ministry, they have emphasized the issue of adaptation to the digital economy at every opportunity and have implemented many projects in this field.
Explaining that the digital transformation of the public and private sectors is of great importance for the healthy functioning of markets and trade in the new era, Pekcan said, “The period we are in is a period in which the digital economy, automation, big data, block chain, internet of things, cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies come to the fore, information and communication technologies are applied in a multidimensional manner in almost every sector and bring radical changes in social life.”
Pekcan underlined that while the development of digital applications and e-commerce has led to the emergence of new professions and business areas, it also offers great opportunities for tradesmen and craftsmen.
Stating that thanks to digital applications and e-commerce, tradesmen and craftsmen will be able to activate and expand their activities and make more profit, Pekcan noted that businesses will be able to create their own brands, expand their businesses and commercial activities when necessary, and even become exporters in some cases.
Pekcan pointed out that they saw that the “Tradesmen Initiative Making a Difference with Digital Transformation” projects were designed with similar goals and said:
“In the project, which has several components, opportunities will be created to enable our tradesmen to easily establish e-commerce sites. In the first step of the project, support and trainings will be provided especially for the digital transformation of restaurants and cafes. I believe that this project, spearheaded by Google Turkey and supported by the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, our Ministry and TESK, will achieve valuable outputs. Our Ministry, especially our General Directorate of Domestic Trade and General Directorate of Tradesmen, Craftsmen and Cooperatives, has been and will continue to provide the necessary support for the successful completion of the project.”
“3 thousand 761 SMEs met with e-commerce”
Pekcan stated that they aim to continue their activities for the development of e-commerce infrastructure and utilization in Turkey without slowing down, and mentioned applications such as e-Commerce Information Platform, e-Commerce Trust Stamp, e-Commerce Academy and Easy Export Platform.
Reminding that they organized the solidarity campaign “We are on the Side of SMEs as e-Commerce” with the participation of all the main actors of the e-commerce sector in May and June, Pekcan said, “Approximately 135 thousand SMEs benefited from the campaign and 3 thousand 761 SMEs met e-commerce.” used the expression.
Minister Pekcan said that they will continue on their way with projects suitable for the development of the age, such as the Customs Tariff Search Engine, GET-APP, SHIP, the establishment of a Data Analytics Center of Excellence and the block-chain-based export chain.
“We are launching the Digital Transformation Project Competition”
Pekcan, who gave the good news that they will introduce another important project as soon as possible, noted the following:
“We are launching a highly innovative, award-winning Digital Transformation Project Competition that will be open to all entrepreneurs and entrepreneur candidates from our country. This competition has been prepared in a very meticulous and institutionalized manner by examining the most advanced precedent competitions in the world. The competition will have local and foreign jury members who have achieved international success. We evaluate that all our entrepreneurs who apply to the competition and will go through the elimination processes will benefit greatly from the competition and will improve themselves considerably in terms of innovation and digital applications.”
Pekcan pointed out that as a country, it is necessary to be proactive in becoming an information society and internalizing the developments of the age such as digitalization and said, “Our country has big goals. In order to achieve these goals, we do not have the luxury of following the digital transformation from behind. On the contrary, we must continue our work with our vision of becoming one of the important and dominant actors of the digital transformation process of this process. We see our tradesmen and craftsmen in this reality and this transformation. We can never consider them outside this process.”
“We aim to develop new projects in 2021”
Stating that they will continue to work to support tradesmen and craftsmen in different fields of activity to keep up with this process, Pekcan said that the “Tradesmen Making a Difference in Digital Transformation” program launched in cooperation with Google Turkey is an important, useful and appropriate project in this respect.
Pekcan stated that they see this project as “a drop in the pool” and said, “In this direction, we aim to continue developing new projects in cooperation with both Google and other companies in 2021. The fact that both our Presidency, our Ministry and TESK are part of the project has revealed a very positive picture in terms of public-private sector cooperation.”
Source: https://www.dunya.com/ekonomi/tursab-hedef-turizm-pazarlariyla-gorusmelerini-surduruyor-haberi-604839
