Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO), Şekib Avdagiç, stated that Turkey does not have a problem in terms of domestic e-commerce and said, “We need to get somewhere in the field of cross-border e-commerce in the coming period. When we look at April, there has been no e-commerce in e-commerce to date.” “More than 3 million credit card purchasers who have not made any purchases bought something using e-commerce for the first time.” he said.
According to the statement made by the Karadeniz Foundation, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) Chairman Şekib Avdagiç, International Transporters Association (UND) Chairman Çetin Nuhoğlu and Karadeniz Foundation Vice President Ali Bayramoğlu participated in the business world in the Black Sea Strategic Research Center (KASAM) program. evaluated the latest developments.
ICOC President Şekib Avdagiç stated that although the virus originated in China, this is not an issue related only to China, and that 1/3 of the approximately 150 thousand restaurants and cafe establishments in Turkey are located in Istanbul and that they have been dragged into a troubled situation.
While discussing the aspects of the global economy and change, Avdagiç stated that Turkey is trying to eliminate grievances with the steps taken in three areas, and said:
“Firstly, the state classified some companies as force majeure and postponed their public debts for 6 months. Secondly, the state took a two-pronged measure for employees. A short-time working allowance, that is, those who lost their jobs, can apply. Those who have 450 days and 60 days rules can apply. . They can receive a salary of up to 4 thousand 400 liras from the state, and unemployment benefits of up to 1,200 liras are given to those who are unemployed without any reason. There are supports offered to employers who do not lay off their employees. There has been a great demand for this in Istanbul. More than 260 thousand companies in Istanbul have this opportunity. applied, that is, an application reaching 2.5 million people. There are some complaints about late returns, but several times the number of applications made in 17 years has appeared in the last 1.5 months. I congratulate the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services for dealing with this burden, “It is a great success to get such a large group of people to decide so quickly.”
Thirdly, Avdagiç stated that credit channels have been activated and that supports have been prepared for tradesmen and they have been put into effect.
Avdagiç pointed out that, according to the figures of a week ago, the total credit volume in Turkey was around 1 trillion 950 billion lira and continued his words as follows:
“This increased by approximately 100 billion lira in April. 94 billion lira of this was made through public banks, only 6 billion lira was made through private banks. Public banks acted very actively with state support. However, if we consider that the demand was higher and all the demand could not be met, together with the country’s possibilities We see that a certain demand is met. In Europe and Turkey, a process has always been carried out that supports the supply side, that is, the production side. The USA is implementing a slightly different model. The West has now started to discuss this; we support production, but these produced goods are not subject to demand. “If it does not, this production will be blocked after a while. Therefore, in the second step, consumption needs to be supported and the consumer needs to be motivated. In other words, it has become very important for the consumer to start spending again in order to continue production.”
“Companies have reached a position where they can change hands at very cheap prices.”
Avdagiç stated that “vultures” have begun to roam all over the world, and noted that companies that are currently in trouble and some large companies are in a position to change hands at very cheap prices.
Explaining that many countries are now trying to disconnect their supply source from China and establish it in their own country or in geography close to their own country, Avdagiç said:
“Seeing this, the Chinese have made a serious move to purchase companies in these fields at very affordable prices. Some countries, such as Germany, have introduced public control in the sales of such companies. Government approval is required, especially in the sales of strategic companies. This is also a very important issue for Turkey. “Otherwise, our very valuable companies may go to foreigners for a penny in this cash crisis. There is no alarming situation in Turkey yet, but I would like to underline that the necessary precautions must be taken. This is an issue we need to pay close attention to in the coming period.”
The West is now considering establishing production bases in its own countries, with more robotization. Therefore, we clearly see that we will enter a new era in the supply chain after the pandemic crisis. There are three critical topics we identified in our contacts with Ankara. One of these is cyber security. Working from home poses an incredible risk. Because IT systems were not designed for external operation. IT vulnerabilities emerged when a lot of people connected from outside.”
Stating that Turkey has no problems with domestic e-commerce, Avdagiç continued as follows:
“Even if some of the e-commerce in the country has been taken over by foreign capital, we have come to a certain point at this point. Now we need to think about cross-border e-commerce. Currently, PTT is working on this field and it is working in certain geographies, especially Africa.” They have achieved success. But I see that they cannot make themselves heard enough. We definitely need to get somewhere in terms of cross-border e-commerce in the coming period. Electronic commerce will gain more importance. When we look only at last April, there are 3 million people who have never made any purchases in e-commerce until today. “For the first time, people bought something with a credit card through e-commerce. In e-commerce, cologne sales increased by 1000 percent, yeast sales increased by 400 percent, and electronic devices increased by 700 percent. There is a very rapid increase in some goods.”
Avdagiç stated that the opening of shopping malls is being discussed and that new regulations are now required and said, “Germany, for example, introduced new standards for shopping mall ventilation. Turkey also needs to prevent a new wave of risks as shopping malls come into operation. Turkey is not at a bad point in terms of digitalization, but it is rapidly changing.” “The developing world needs to be more prepared for the coming period. As ITO, we have taken steps in this period.” he said.
He stated that in this process, less money was spent and this was immediately reflected in economic life.
“For luxury spending to continue, confidence must be established in the market.”
Çetin Nuhoğlu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Transporters Association (UND), stated that they first encountered the impact of the pandemic on February 23, and noted the following regarding the difficulties Turkey faced in road trade in the Middle East and Central Asia regions:
“It was Sunday, our members called and said that our trucks going to Central Asia could not enter Turkmenistan. Panic occurred when we heard that Turkmenistan had closed its doors. We transport 6 billion dollars of goods annually to Central Asia via Iran by carrying out 40 thousand transportations. That day, approximately 1,500 of our cars in Iran were waiting to go to Central Asia. However, Turkmenistan only took drivers who were its own citizens, ours stayed in Iran. They cannot go forward, and their return is subject to many regulations. This is how we first met on February 23, and then the doors to Iraq and Iran were closed. Iraq is a very important country for us. We export goods worth 9 billion dollars to Iraq annually, and we do this with approximately 600 thousand flights. In other words, 600 thousand of our vehicles annually pick up goods in Turkey and transport them to Iraq. The sudden closure of the doors put us in a very difficult situation. We had more than 6 thousand driver friends in Iraq. In Iran, this figure was around 1,500. “We were making 1,500 trips to Iraq every day.”
Nuhoğlu stated that the relevant ministries contributed to quick decisions in the meetings and said, “We prepared the documents of our 1,500 drivers in Iran and enabled them to return. This took 25 days. This developed differently in Iraq. Because the transportation was very intense there. The Iraq gate on February 29.” It was closed, we launched contactless trade on March 1. On March 2, we started changing vehicles in the buffer zone before any of our vehicles and drivers crossed the road. That is, the truck leaves the trailer in that area, they come from the other side and pick it up with a tow truck. We are having a hard time fully understanding what is happening right now. “We cannot see exactly what will happen next. We know that some things will change, but we do not know how they will change. We need to be prepared for this.” made his assessment.
Pointing out that the share of luxury consumption in the 88 trillion dollar world trade is very high, Nuhoğlu said, “In recent months, the figures in world trade have been falling and the sectors have been shaken. Confidence in the market must be created in order to direct people to consume again and to continue luxury spending.” he said.
Nuhoğlu stated that Turkey provides solid public support to its people in terms of capital, tax deferral and loans.
