Kayseri Chamber of Industry (KAYSO) June Assembly Meeting; Assembly members, professional committee members, disciplinary board members, high advisory board members and TOBB Kayseri Young Entrepreneurs Executive Board members were held in KAYSO assembly hall.
KAYSO Assembly Chairman Abidin Özkaya, who made the opening speech of the meeting; Stating that long holiday intervals provide advantages for some sectors but create disadvantages for the production sectors, he said, “Even if our businesses do not work, they have to bear fixed expenses. The costs of lost days from production appear as inefficiency, additional product cost and increase in product prices. Long holiday intervals should be re-evaluated taking into account all these negativities.” Stating that the difficulties in accessing financing continue, Özkaya said that although there has been a slight relaxation in the maturity dates of loan utilization, the costs are still high, which constitutes an obstacle to production and investment. Özkaya also stated that the economic stagnation in foreign markets, the wars in our near geography and especially the increase in the market dominance of Chinese products negatively affected exports. Stating that the limit and installment limitations on commercial credit cards put the supply of intermediate goods in production into trouble, Özkaya said; “We are still going through a period in which checks and promissory notes are discredited. Checks and promissory notes have ceased to be a means of payment. This limitation on cards, while considering the credit quality of our businesses, also paves the way for informality. We maintain our belief that this issue will be resolved in a more reasonable way in consultation with the relevant stakeholders.”
“As a country, we have no choice but to produce”
Mehmet Büyüksimitci, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KAYSO, who then took the floor to make his speech, stated that Turkey is struggling with a number of economic problems, especially high inflation, as in the whole world, and said, “Economic troubles come and go, the important thing is that we continue to produce as industrialists. If we want to be strong as a country and be less affected by the economic turmoil in the world, we have no choice but to produce as a country. We have to work hard and expand our production areas.” Explaining that they are working on new planned industrial areas as a chamber, President Büyüksimitci said, “The ratio of the area allocated for industry in Turkey to the total surface area is only 3 per thousand. This ratio is 2.5 percent in France and 4.4 percent in Germany. By producing new planned industrial areas, we have to move our country to higher rates rapidly. As a chamber, we strive for this. Our work in our Erciyes OIZ continues rapidly. The registration of the parcels belonging to the treasury on behalf of Erciyes OSB will be completed in a short time. If we can complete the expropriation of private properties and the preparation and approval of zoning plans by the end of the year, we will start infrastructure works at the beginning of 2025. Hopefully, we will complete the infrastructure quickly and make our region investable.”
“Two more OIZs are next”
Explaining that they are working on two more OIZs, Büyüksimitci said; “One of them is Space, Aviation and Defense Specialized OIZ, and the other is Recycling Specialized OIZ. Hopefully, if we can complete the projects of these places and put them into practice as soon as possible, we will support production, employment and exports, and therefore the development and development of our country more.” President Büyüksimitci said, “There are very important transformation processes that are closely related to us. Twin transformation, efficiency and sustainability are at the top of these. I try to mention these issues at every opportunity because if we cannot keep up with the green transformation and digital transformation, our exports will be seriously disrupted, our trade relations with EU countries will be disrupted or we will have to pay high taxes. As the Chamber, we have organized dozens of trainings and panels to prepare our industrialists for these processes. We organize an event almost every month. With all these efforts, we aim for a Kayseri industry ready for green consensus.” President Büyüksimitci stated that model factories are a good opportunity to increase productivity in production and to ensure digital transformation; “Our companies that receive training from model factories increase their productivity in a short period of time without making any new investments, only by changing their perspective on production. I always state that our companies that receive services from Kayseri Model Factory increase their daily production between 20 percent and 240 percent. Once again, I invite all our industrialists to increase productivity in production by participating in the trainings of Kayseri Model Factory.”
Explaining that there are 21 Kayseri companies in the list of ‘Turkey’s top 1000 exporters 2023’ announced by TIM, President Büyüksimitci thanked all companies that contribute to the country’s economy by producing and exporting and wished them continued success.
