TİM President Gülle Meets with Exporters

Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) Chair İsmail Gülle, speaking to the export community gathered in Denizli, said, "We will resolve the guarantee issue, which is a common problem for our exporters." TİM, the umbrella organization for 61 exporter associations and 27 sectors, continues its work at full speed to reach the 250 billion dollar target in 2022. Bringing together more than 100,000 exporters under one roof, TİM convened with regional exporters at the TİM Denizli Assembly meeting to assess the dynamics of the regional economy and increase its share in exports. Last month, TİM held the Southeast Anatolia Assembly program in Gaziantep with dense participation of regional exporters, and this time met with its members in Denizli. At the meeting, consultations were held with regional exporters to assess the dynamics of the regional economy and increase its share in exports. Following the TİM Denizli Assembly program, an awards ceremony was held to present awards to successful companies that achieved the highest exports in their sectors. TİM Chair İsmail Gülle, delivering the opening remarks of the meeting, stated that Denizli is a model for development for all of Anatolia. Chair Gülle noted that despite having strong economic centers like İzmir and Manisa in its vicinity, Denizli has managed to become a next-generation industrial hub.

"Denizli's exports increased 11-fold in the last 20 years"

Stating that Denizli has read Turkey's development well and placed exports at the center of business, TİM Chair İsmail Gülle said, "Over the last 20 years, our city's exports increased 11-fold. Four years ago when we took office, our exports were 164 billion dollars. Our number of exporting firms was 65,000, and our export volume was 115 million tons. Denizli's exports were 3 billion dollars, and the total number of exporters was 1,100. In the four years since then to where we stand now, our exports rose to 225 billion dollars. Our number of exporters exceeded 100,000. Our export volume reached 174 million tons. Denizli's exports increased by 50 percent, exceeding 4.5 billion dollars. The number of exporters in Denizli rose to 1,500. With these figures, Denizli became our ninth province with the highest exports."

"Our province set an export record to exactly 64 countries last year"

Stating that the steel sector exports in Denizli increased by 100 percent, ferrous and non-ferrous metals by 95 percent, chemicals by 92 percent, electronics by 68 percent, and textile sector exports by 29 percent over the last 4 years, Gülle said, "Exactly 14 of our sectors in Denizli achieved their highest exports in 2021. Additionally, our province set an export record to exactly 64 countries last year. 2021 was the year of exports in Denizli in every sense. In 2022, our Denizli exporters continue to achieve new successes. In the first 2 months of the year, our province's exporters achieved 730 million dollars in exports with a 19 percent increase."

"We will leave better tomorrows to future generations"

"As Turkish Exporters Assembly and Exporter Associations, we are part of this change. Because with the rise in our exports, we are now in a new league in global trade. In the new period, we are shaping both our strategy and our approach to exports with an understanding that increases quality alongside quantity. By establishing a sustainable system in exports, we will leave better tomorrows to future generations. We have laid the foundations of projects that will create this infrastructure. The TİM Brand Council we established last year has rapidly begun projects serving our exports and our country's brand value. Additionally, the TİM Women's Council we established to ensure the effective participation of our women in the economy and exports, is continuing its activities for female exporters and entrepreneurs with a busy agenda. We are organizing virtual and physical trade missions specially for our female exporters; we are bringing our female exporters together with buyers around the world. Furthermore, we established Young TİM to train tomorrow's exporters today. In a very short time, Young TİM reached more than 600 members. Our Young TİM member count from Denizli is 34. Additionally, with awareness of the reality of climate change, we established the TİM Climate Committee to anticipate all opportunities and risks that may arise."

"276 firms from Denizli exported for the first time this year"

TİM Chair İsmail Gülle, emphasizing that sectoral action plans are being implemented one by one following TİM's Sustainability Action Plan, said, "Following our Textile Action Plan announced in June, we also unveiled the Agriculture and Livestock Sector Sustainability Action Plan last week. In addition to these projects, we have continued without slowing our efforts to increase the number of exporting firms. Through our TİM SME Export Mobilization training program, we meet with our companies from all corners of Anatolia." Noting that TİM transferred its programs to Denizli in 2020 in order to evaluate Denizli's great potential and bring new members to the export family, TİM Chair İsmail Gülle expressed that they have achieved successful results due to the interest in exports in Denizli. Gülle said, "276 firms from Denizli exported for the first time this year. Our Denizli exporters are also achieving important successes in our innovation projects. 47 firms from Denizli participated in İnovaLİG 2020, Turkey's first innovation development program. Five of these firms placed. We continued to support our Denizli youth and entrepreneurs within the TİM-TEB Entrepreneurship House, our country's largest entrepreneurship family. To date, nearly 600 students have graduated from Wake Up and Let's Up programs. Support was provided to 138 entrepreneurs."

"Foreign buyers have serious interest in Turkish products"

Saying that trade missions are another important effort that contributes to increasing the number of exporters and market diversity, Chair Gülle said, "Despite the pandemic, we connected our exporters with the world through 100 virtual and 15 physical trade missions carried out in 74 countries. This month, in the missions we held in Israel and Spain, we saw that buyers have serious interest in Turkish products. This interest greatly pleased us and made us even more excited about the coming period. Furthermore, our exporters have participated intensively in Turkey Logistics Portal, which we launched in October. The portal, which we designed as a digital bridge between exporters and the logistics sector, saw more than 2,000 firms register and begin receiving services in a very short time. Together with the developing structure of our Turkey Logistics Portal, we believe it will provide much greater contributions to our exports. We invite our regional exporters and logistics firms to become members of the Turkey Logistics Portal, which we created with our own resources." "We will also resolve the guarantee issue, which is a common problem for our exporters" TİM Chair İsmail Gülle, stating that the Export Development Corporation, which exporters have been eagerly waiting for, began operations as of March 1, said, "Kasım Akdeniz, General Director of İGE A.Ş., which will play a critical role in solving the guarantee problem, is also with us today. Together with İGE A.Ş., which our exporters created with their own resources, our exporters will no longer need to mortgage their real estate and fixed assets to banks to obtain credit. Thus, we will resolve the guarantee issue, which is a common problem for our exporters." The TİM Denizli Assembly and DENİB Export Stars Awards Ceremony program, hosted by TİM Chair İsmail Gülle and DENİB Chair Hüseyin Memişoğlu, was attended by Denizli Governor Ali Fuat Atik, Denizli Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Osman Zolan, TİM Brand Council Vice Chair Süleyman Orakçıoğlu, TİM Women's Council member Mukaddes Başkaya, Young TİM Vice Chair Okan Oğuz, KOSGEB Vice Chair Dr. Recep Kılınç, İGE A.Ş. General Director Kasım Akdeniz, and Turkish Eximbank Aegean Region Director Gülom Timurhan.   Source