Minister Of Industry and Trade Zafer Caglayan:
“Turkey is the Sprinter of Globalizing World's Economy”

The June 2008 “Business Class” meeting was held at The Marmara Hotel, Taksim. In the meeting, chaired by Dogan Hasol, member of “Business Class” advisory board, Minister of Industry and Commerce Zafer Caglayan talked about “Globalization in the World and Turkish Industrial Strategies”. In addition to prominent businessmen, the rectors of Maltepe University, Afyon Kocatepe University, European University of Lefke and Istanbul Arel University participated in the meeting. The meeting was attended by a total of 88 participants including graduate students from Istanbul Technical, Marmara, Yildiz Teknik, Maltepe, Kadir Has ve Istanbul Commerce universities. The meeting, broadcast live over the Internet through “Element Virtual Class” system software of the main event sponsor Element Education Technologies was also attended by 122 on-line participants including students from all over Turkey and people from three other countries.

Minister of Industry and Commerce, Zafer Caglayan, started his words by stating that he has been involved in industrial activity of production and employment for 27 years. He said that he has always endeavored to find what he could do to better Turkey, and added that “as we all see we are going through a transformation period. In every field, industry and universities, new methods are being developed. In comparison to the past 5-6 years, Turkey has now become a country with a capacity of 120-billion-dollar exportation. In addition to the high figures in automotive exportation, textile is the sector with highest figures in the employment of women. Enormous distances have been covered in the dynamics of economy in Turkey. Stability achieved in macro economy and politics is noteworthy. Turkey is a country where a vehicle is produced every 24 seconds and exported every 30 seconds. It is on the way to becoming a base for automobile industry.”

In the Business Class meeting, in addition to Zafer Caglayan’s statement that in parallel with the globalization in the world, Turkish economy is also in the process of transformation and development, it has been propounded that in today’s world where qualified work force is needed, education and employment are of utmost importance. Caglayan also stated that “In the market liberalization is extremely important. In Turkey now certain norms are transformed together with politics and bureaucracy. With the developing conditions of competition and the reduction of inflation to low figures, productivity in industry has remarkably increased in the last five years.”

Caglayan went on to say that “I used to complain about the lack a strategic road map and industrial inventory when I was the head of the Chamber of Commerce. We are now in a very important process to resolve this problem. We are recoding the MR of Turkey, so to speak. When we look at the problems of SMEs, lack of qualified personnel is the most important dire strait. Every city and sector conveys variations in terms of employment”. He also added that he studied university under very poor conditions and could not go to a preparatory course for the university entrance exam but still got quite high points and entered Istanbul University.

In Turkey today, where university graduates cannot find jobs and the problem of unemployment has not been solved, a serious planning about employment needs to be done.

Caglayan mentioned that “unfortunately theory and practice could not be reconciled in vocational high schools. This will be planned in the period ahead us. Industry is a pioneering sector. It has priority. Considering the geographical and physical conditions of Turkey, we will be basing our incentive system on this model. We will not only be working on the formation of industrial zones but also zones of stock breeding and hothouse agriculture. Turkey is advantageous considering that there are industrially developed countries only an hour-flight’s distant.”

Caglayan also said that “Today Turkey is one of the few countries where a company can be founded in a day. The industrialist used to spend at least ten days to provide a guarantee bond. The reduction of bureaucratic processes eased our work considerably.”

Emphasizing the importance of various sectors and employment, Caglayan stated that “There are such sectors that their most important asset is employment. We considered whether such firms should go to Ukraine or to less-developed parts in Turkey. I suggested that there could be migration from west to east as a result. I used to be in the position of asking for then, now I am in the position of execution. The system of regional military salary will be an appropriate model for Turkey. Let’s develop the East and the Southeast. We are preparing an employment inventory. The employment problem in Turkey occurs because the demands for employment and the body of the unemployed do not overlap. We should make planning in our universities. There are such departments that people studying them are unlikely to find jobs after graduation. This is not in compliance with globalization and the new vision. We need to cooperate by using industry and software. It is necessary to plan departments at universities and vocational high schools accordingly. We ‘married’ Sincan Vocational High School with the Industrial Zone in the region. We made Iþkur execute the intelligence and handicraft tests. We had 75% of the students start work. Students are at school two days a week and at work three days a week. They receive minimum wages. All their needs are met by the Educational Institution and the Industrial zone. We thereby constitute demand for city employment institutions.
In our country there are advancements in employment in industry and the necessary structural and legal changes are being done to employ disabled citizens.

Caglayan frankly stated that he used to think, wrongfully, that universities were after the money of the industrialists but would not be successful. He added, “I now realize that universities have come a long way in the education of qualified work force for industry. In employment policies, employment of the disabled is an important incentive. We have 11 institutions which provide incentive in this area. We are also working on an act that will be passed soon.”

Zafer Caglayan underlined the importance of r&d and said that “We will achieve immense development with the ‘Informatics Valley’ planned to be established in Istanbul. This will make enormous advancements possible in our country. We have to be proactive. Central Bank is not in a position to challenge the government in terms of its foundation. I have always been for the independence of the Central Bank. I was misunderstood. It is the Central Bank in charge to ensure the stability in prices. I respect differences in opinions. Our companies have been bought by foreign companies. We have also bought foreign companies. It is very important for a country to buy giant organizations like Godiva and Grundig. What can we achieve by working day and night? We aim to achieve competitive force. The reforms in social security and the increased competition among Turkish industries and businesses have enabled the Turkish industrialists to become confident in their competition with the world. It is a very important event that today a Turkish establishment, Koç, can buy a company like Grundig.”

We live in an era of globalization in the world, where economic boundaries are being removed. Increasing work force causes emergence of new sectors.

Caglayan concluded his speech by saying that “Turkey still has problems to deal with. I wish it had not. I wish I did not have to sleep 3-4 hours a day as a minister of this country. Nevertheless, what can we do? We work day and night to be useful for the country. We work on many projects such as the production of main goods in Turkey, the act of R&D, new measures about employment and reduction of employment costs. It is a very important period in terms of automotive industry for Turkey. Costs of production and employment are too high. In Europe, you cannot make a person work more than 8 hours a day. Our main problem, in Turkey, is not having local savings as well as oil and oil prices, the real factor for current account deficit. Today, in our country we keep the window open while the air condition or the central heating is on. We continually warm up or cool the air outside. On the other hand, because we do not do what needs to be done in the isolation of buildings, we lose a lot of energy. We have to be careful about everything, from lamps to the refrigerators and also the engines in factories.”

In today’s world where economy and work force are gaining increasing importance, the necessity of planning and r&d has once again been proved.