ITO Chairman Şekib Avdagiç Makes Key Statements

Important Statements from İTO President Şekib Avdagiç Avdagiç addressed the Assembly meeting where İTO's 2023 Business Programme was discussed, with the Chamber representing more than 700,000 member businesses in Istanbul. Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) President Şekib Avdagiç stated: "As İTO, we are concentrating our activities in 2023 on two areas. First, vocational training and entrepreneurship that will eliminate the shortage of skilled personnel, which is essential for production. Second, digital transformation, the importance of which was once again understood through the pandemic." Avdagiç said: "As a management that considers its members to be the reason for İTO's existence, our priority has always been our member businesses. We will continue to conduct our activities in this direction in a way that covers 'as many of our members as possible'." Noting that 2023 would be welcomed in 9 days, Avdagiç said they spent 2022, when life normalized, as a genuine preparation period in the fields of vocational training and digital transformation. [caption id="attachment_147779" align="aligncenter"] Şekib Avdagiç[/caption]

"We issued 96 percent of trade registration certificates online"

Referring to the work İTO accomplished this year, Avdagiç reported that in 2022 they organized 349 training courses, seminars, meetings and webinars on numerous topics ranging from exports to digital transformation, from state support and incentives to green protocols, and from artificial intelligence to branding. Noting that they issued 96 percent of trade registration certificates online, Şekib Avdagiç stated that they opened a Fast Communication Centre to accelerate information access for Istanbul businesses. Avdagiç said: "We integrated the İTO Smart Assistant System into digital platforms. With voice response technology, we enabled queries for membership fees, outstanding balances and registration application results. We created a personalized tracking system." Avdagiç noted that they issued over 534,000 activity certificates during the year and that the increase in requests for 'capacity reports', which indicate increased business productivity, continued. Avdagiç said: "As of 15 December, we issued 7,276 capacity reports. This corresponds to an 8.4 percent increase compared to the previous year." Avdagiç stated that as İTO, they issued 5,543,000 documents in 2022 for companies to produce, conduct exports and imports, and for businesses to be established. Noting that the Chamber has made great strides in technology and digital transformation over the past 4 years, Avdagiç continued as follows: "With the Dijito Project, we completed İTO's digital transformation with entirely domestic and national software. To put it simply, along with exactly 22 million visual trade registration data, we migrated 40 years of 'millions of lines of current and historical information', with 700,000 active members, to the new systems through data migration."

"With SoftITo we set out to build the economy of the future"

İTO President Avdagiç also informed the Assembly Members about the Chamber's 2023 business programme. Stating that they will place special emphasis on vocational training activities, Avdagiç said: "We are successfully implementing the Vocational Training Cooperation Project, our Mentorship Project, in 54 vocational and technical high schools in Istanbul. We contribute to the determination of professional competencies. In 2022 we organized training programmes in areas such as 'second-hand automotive sales consulting, paintless dent repair, real estate sales consulting for foreigners and printing', and achieved successful results. We are also supporting the Digital Employment Matching Platform Software Project as a strong stakeholder. Additionally, through the İTO Competency Centre, we provide theory and simulation-based practical training."

Stating that they are also carrying out digital transformation activities, Avdagiç continued as follows:

"We are implementing the SoftITo Software-IT Academy Project, which I believe will be one of İTO's pride projects. Yes, this project is our pride project, because with SoftITo Academy we have set out to build the economy of the future starting today. By creating a new-generation software ecosystem aimed at employment, we will provide a very significant differentiation."