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YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY

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PANORAMA Why Innovation is Crucial BRIEFING One Festival, Two Continents IN DEPTH Bridging The Energy Gap

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

ECONOMY BUSINESS FOREIGN TRADE ANALYSIS

Turkey

on the

Move

Turkey has long been a country shaken by chronic economic and financial crises (1959, 1969, the 1970s, 1994, 2000-2001), but it has risen, in the last decade, to rank 17th among global economic powers.

The Turkish Perspective

Contents 38 COVER 05 FIRST 05 | Agreement Between Turkey and Nigeria 06 | New SARP Weapon Systems

by Aselsan 07 | Başkentray Enters into Service 08 | Aim for €20B Trade Volume 09 | New Record from Olive Oil 11 | Turkey’s Geothermal Target for 2030 Quadruples

Turkey

on the

Move

07 15 BRIEFING 15 | THE WORLD’S MOST THRIVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP MEETUP

48 INDEPTH

48

48 | BRIDGING THE ENERGY GAP

Turkey sealed its determination to enter the league of countries that capitalize on nuclear power last week when the country witnessed the beginning of the construction of its first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu.

Istanbul successfully hosted the 10th anniversary of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress with over 7.000 entrepreneurship ecosystem builders from 170 countries.

57 BRANDS

18 | LOOKING FOR THE FUTURE

One of Turkey’s most important economy summits, the Uludağ Economy Summit is organized by Capital and Ekonomist magazines and was held in northwestern Bursa province.

57| NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN HOME DECORATION

28 | KOLAYDESTEK.GOV.TR IS ONLINE!

23 | THE 37 th İSTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), Turkey’s biggest international cinema event Istanbul Film Festival with a programme comprising highlights from Turkey and world cinema took place between 6 and 17 April 2018.

The website of www.kolaydestek. gov.tr is put into service to easily follow the regulations on export supports.

32 | TOP AVIATION TRAINING CONFERENCE

32

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Global Training Partner Conference brought together aviation professionals.

Yataş Group is positioning itself to establish a commanding presence in the international market with incentives granted for advertisement investments, rent and decoration investments.

62 AGENDA

FAIRS, EXHIBITIONS, SUMMITS, MEETINGS IN THE NEXT MONTH

63 FIGURES THE BASIC INDICATORS OF TURKEY IN THE MARCH 2018

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2 Online

Online

MANAGEMENT

theturkishperspective.com

PUBLISHER ON BEHALF OF TURKISH EXPORTERS ASSEMBLY/ CHAIRMAN OF THE TURKISH EXPORTERS ASSEMBLY

MEHMET BÜYÜKEKŞİ STRATEGIC PARTNER PRESIDENT OF PRIME MINISTRY INVESTMENT SUPPORT AND PROMOTION AGENCY

ARDA ERMUT

THE TURKISH PERSPECTIVE DIGITAL

The Turkish Perspective website is to be launched soon.

A NEW MEDIUM TO LEARN, ANALYZE AND MONITOR EVERYTHING ABOUT TURKISH ECONOMY AND BUSINESS, IS BORN. THE TURKISH PERSPECTIVE DIGITAL WILL SHARE THE LATEST NEWS, INTERVIEWS WITH DECISION MAKERS, PROVIDE IN-DEPTH ANALYZES AND WILL BE THE FOREIGNER’S GUIDE IN TURKEY REGARDING REGULATIONS AND LEGISLATIONS.

MANAGER IN CHARGE H. BADER ARSLAN PhD

PUBLICATION BOARD M. İLKER AYCI HC. DR. MUSTAFA ÇIKRIKÇIOĞLU BİLAL EKŞİ SÜLEYMAN KOCASERT BÜLENT AYMEN FURKAN KARAYAKA

PUBLICATION MANAGEMENT PRESIDENT MEHMET MÜCAHİD DEMİR

mdemir@theturkishperspective.com

VICE PRESIDENT YAŞAR MAMATİ PROJECT COORDINATOR AHMET DAMGACIOĞLU adamgacioglu@theturkishperspective.com

EDITORIAL EDITORS MUSTAFA YİĞİT myigit@theturkishperspective.com

RAMAZAN GÜZYURDU rguzyurdu@theturkishperspective.com

BUSINESS CULTURE T INVESTMEN CIENCE S D N A INNOVATION E DAY VIDEO OF TH NEWS KETING B R A N D MA R

EUROPEAN COORDINATOR İNANÇ ATILGAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS İLHAN ALPAY OGAN İBRAHİM AVCI SERAP KAYA DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR AHMET SAİD ÇELİK acelik@theturkishperspective.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER UMUT DURUTUNA YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY

7YEAR TH

YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY

BRIEFING Connecting East And West: “Startup İstanbul”

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TH YEAR

LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF

INVESTMENTS IN

Breakthrough Year of Exports

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DECEMBER 2017 ISSUE 53

OF RISK PSROTRY

INDU

Need: Innovation

IN DEPTH Invest in France

JANUARY 2018 ISSUE 54

ECONOMY BUSINESS FOREIGN TRADE ANALYSIS

BRIEFING The Only Thing We

BRANDS Arzum: A 50-Year Brand In Household Electrical Appliances

BRANDS Beyoğlu Gazozu: Taste From The Past

BRANDS Pharmactive: Begun to Export to European Countries

ECONOMY BUSINESS FOREIGN TRADE ANALYSIS

YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY

IN DEPTH The Country of Northern Lights: Finland

IN DEPTH Brand Country in Sport Organizations: Turkey

NOVEMBER 2017 ISSUE 52

BRIEFING Export Week 2017:

ECONOMY BUSINESS FOREIGN TRADE ANALYSIS

TURKISH EXPORTERS: We’re grateful for your confidence

MEETING AND EXCEEDING INTERNATIONAL QUALITY AND SAFETY STANDARDS, TODAY’S TURKISH AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IS HIGHLY EFFICIENT AND COMPETITIVE THANKS TO VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTION.

Turkey has a “breakthrough year” in 2017 and gained the confidence of all world.

RECENT CHANGES

YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY

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BRIEFING Soda Ash: The Largest Producer in Europe

YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY

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IN DEPTH Turkey: Global Player in Defense

ECONOMY BUSINESS FOREIGN TRADE ANALYSIS

THE YEAR OF

RECORDS

YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY

PANORAMA Global Trade On The Rise BRIEFING Major Actor of Humanitarian Aid

BRANDS Şölen: Re-Establishing the Chocolate Candy Rules

FEBRUARY 2018 ISSUE 55

IN DEPTH Invest in Greece

MARCH 2018 ISSUE 56

ECONOMY BUSINESS FOREIGN TRADE ANALYSIS

APRIL 2018 ISSUE 57

8

TH YEAR

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Nihat Zeybekci, Minister of Economy, shared the current state of Turkish economy with Turkish Perspective.

ECONOMY BUSINESS FOREIGN TRADE ANALYSIS

More than a magazine, the Turkish Perspective will now be more interactive and responsive, as expected from Turkey’s main voice for international audience.

info@theturkishperspective.com TuRkEy iS REaDy fOR ThE yEaR Of RECORDS afTER ThE bREakThROugh yEaR, 2017.

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MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

The Turkish Perspective

Editorial MEHMET BÜYÜKEKŞİ PRESIDENT (TIM)

FUTURE OF TURKEY RELIES ON THE INVESTMENTS

As Turkish Exporters Assembly, our purpose is to strengthen Turkey’s position, which forces us to build sustainable solutions to see improvements in Turkey’s export ranking through investments on R&D and innovation.

A

S TURKISH EXPORTERS ASSEMBLY,

we underline that the only way to achieve a sustainable increase in our exports is to embrace innovation, design, R&D and marketing strategies.

Accordingly, in every platform we urge investor to focus on these areas as well as demanding extra incentives from the government to the investors.

At the beginning of this April, an important reform package passed from the Turkish parliament subjecting “Project Based Subsidies”. 23 projects were selected for subsidization for investment, amounting 135 billion Turkish Liras in total. However, the reward for Turkish economy is expected to be greater.

When these projects are all complete, the expected return is around 12 billion dollar decrease in imports and 6.3 billion dollar increase in exports. Accordingly, the expected decrease in current account deficit would be 19 billion dollars.

Another aspect is from the labor perspective; with these investments, 34,111 jobs will be created directly while 134,000 will be created indirectly. A new era of acceleration for Turkish economy’s growth with new records in exports are going to be witnessed in recent future.

Moreover, these subsidies will be provided to the projects aiming to produce high value added products, mainly in renewable energy, armed vehicles, new generation and hybrid engines, jet fighters, medical equipment and health tech. These investments will move Turkey’s economy to the upper league with the expected outcome while safeguarding Turkey’s future.

Besides the subsidies provided by government, as Turkish Exporter’s Assembly we continue to promote exports for the future of our country.

Since 2012, we are organizing “Turkey Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week” and get a great number of participants from public entities, NGO’s, business environment, CEO’s, students, academics and experts in research and development to meet in one platform, under the same roof.

We conduct many other projects as well, aiming to further increase the awareness on the importance of R&D and innovation. For instance, InoSuit and InovaLig. The first innovation acceleration program in Turkey, InovaLig, gives a chance to Turkish companies to compete

with 7,500 companies from 80 different countries according to their abilities on innovation in one platform. And in InoSuit, we provide innovation based mentorship to our firms and help them build a University-Industry partnership as well as building a “Corporate Innovation System”.

In order to reach our 2023 targets, we are bound to multiply our share in global trade today. For now, we are the 17th largest economy in the world. However, our rank in exports is 31st. Our purpose is to strengthen Turkey’s position, which forces us to build sustainable solutions to see improvements in Turkey’s export ranking through investments on R&D and innovation. The future of our economy, relies in increasing the investments.

3

The Turkish Perspective Content: New SARP Weapon Systems P06 Başkentray Enters into Service P07 Enhancing Economic Ties with Thailands P08 New Record from Olive Oil P09 Become Important Energy Partner for Europe P10 Çaykur Opens Factory in Northern Pakistan P11 Editor: Ramazan Güzyurdu

First

DEFENSE, ECONOMY, ENERGY, TOURISM, TURKEY, AUTOMOTIVE, EXPORT, BUSINESS...

The cooperation will be extended to sectors of business cooperation.

BILATERAL RELATIONS

Wide-Reaching Military Training

AGREEMENT BETWEEN TURKEY AND NIGERIA

Exchange Turkey and Nigeria have signed an agreement in the field of military training, the Turkish government’s Official Gazette announced.

T

HE TWO countries will be cooperating in the field of military training and mechanism as part of the agreement signed in Turkey’s capital Ankara.

The cooperation will be extended to sectors of business cooperation, peacekeeping supports, fight against piracy,

institutionalized training, delegations and personnel exchanges, humanitarian aid and more.

The two parties will also cooperate in promoting and archiving military history, museum establishments and exchange of information concerning military education.

The agreement will enable the two countries to train submarine officers, petty officers and international divers.

Special courses will be given on ways to search planted explosives, operating advanced explosive devices, and similar subjects.

Turkey and Nigeria have continued to develop political and economic ties. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Complex in Ankara last November, where the two leaders discussed bilateral and

international issues ranging from education to anti-terrorism efforts against Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also made an official visit to Nigeria on 1-3 March 2016. Furthermore, Turkey-Nigeria Business Forum was organized during the official visit.

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ECONOMY

ECONOMY

FREE TRADE PACT BETWEEN ETHIOPIA AND TURKEY DEFENSE

NEW SARP WEAPON SYSTEMS ASELSAN is set to manufacture new versions of its Stabilized Advanced Remote Weapon Platform (SARP).

The company is preparing to add new products to SARP family in the near future, said a source from ASELSAN, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“Through its extensive surveillance and remote control capabilities, SARP enhances situational awareness of the gunner in his proximity while the vulnerability to attacks is decreased drastically,” according to a description on the defense contractor’s website.

ASELSAN is set to finalize a smaller and lighter configuration of the system, which has been named SARP-L, said the source. It has been designed for low recoil weapons.

The other weapon system, ASELSAN is working on, is SARPZAFER. This system allows troops to change ammunition without moving outside an armored vehicle, providing them security.

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

We want to boost Turkish trade and investment in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular, says Turkish ambassador.

T

HE TURKISH delegation visited the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ECCSA) in the capital, where they met officials and discussed a wide range of business issues.

The delegation has members representing such sectors as agriculture, hotels and tourism, furniture, pharmaceuticals, foods, clothes, confectionaries, hydraulic equipment, telecommunications products, and electrical appliances.

Ayhan Karahan, who heads the delegation, told Ethiopian officials that his delegation wants a free trade pact to beef up Turkish business engagement in the Horn of Africa country.

Karahan is chairman of the Turkish Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics Association, a group that promotes ethical handling of and

better pay for local workers at Turkish businesses overseas.

“It is good that the two countries have an investment protection and avoidance of double taxation agreement,” he said, calling for the free trade pact as another tool to strengthen trade ties.

Binyam Misgina, director of trade and investment promotion at the ECCSA, told the delegation that Ethiopia offers an auspicious destination for Turkish trade and investment because the country has a large market, easily trainable labor force, government incentives including tax relief, and access to regional markets.

For his part, Turkish Ambassador to Ethiopia Fatih Ulusoy said: “Ethiopia is the first priority country in Africa for Turkish development partnership.”

BUSINESS

TWO AWARDS IN LOS ANGELES TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Students from Ankara’s Tevfik Fikret High School won two awards at the Aerospace Valley Regional FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).

T

EVFIK FIKRET’S FRC robotics team, the 3390 Anatolian Eaglebots, created their robot project after six weeks of intensive work.

After making it to the finals following the playoff rounds, the team of Turkish high school students from Tevfik Fikret won the “Finalist” and “Team Spirit” awards.

The organization known as For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

They will participate in the FRC Championship to take place on April 18-21 in Houston. Team mentor Alkaya stressed that team becomes more successful every year and expressed their happiness to return to Turkey with awards.

UKRAINE INVITES TURKISH INVESTORS “We want Turkish businesspeople to benefit from privatization process and invite them to join tenders,” Stepan Kubiv, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister and minister of economic development and trade, said in an interview.

Noting the cordial economic relations between Turkey and Ukraine, Kubiv said the two countries are not rivals and they “complement each other economically and socially.”

According to TurkStat, Turkey’s official statistical authority, the foreign trade volume between Turkey and Ukraine surged 9.4 percent yearon-year in 2017.

Highlighting that works to finalize bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries continue, Kubiv said the agreement can be signed in next six months.

“The partnership in growing wheat and processing meat are also on our agenda. All those developments are accelerating the signing process,” Kubiv said.

The Turkish Perspective

ENERGY

TOURISM

TURKEY

China: A Tourism Partner China will soon become one of Ankara’s “most important” tourism partners, Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said.

$5.2 BILLION

PROTOCOL

Turkey-based Metcap Energy Investments and Qatar-based Fusion Dynamics signed a $5.2 billion protocol for a natural gas and petrochemical investment in Turkey.

Metcap Energy Investment President Celal Metin pointed out the importance of the deal, saying the energy and petrochemicals are the fields that cannot be separated.

TECHNOLOGY

MONEY CLEANING DEVICE Developed by two Turkish students, HTM - Hygienic Teller Machine - can remove bacteria by ultraviolet light Two high school students in Turkey have developed a device to disinfect banknotes using ultraviolet light.

Osman Bugra Bolat and Berat Doguhan Basara led by their information technologies teacher Ahmet Arpaci, have developed a machine that can kill the bacteria on banknotes by ultraviolet light.

C

HINA WILL BECOME one of the most important tourism partners of Turkey in the very near future,” Kurtulmuş told reporters at the 14th China International Tourism and Travel Fair in the capital Beijing.

Kurtulmuş said it is Turkey’s tourism strategy to engage in promotional activities with countries such as China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“We hope that close relations between Turkey and China will reflect also in the area of tourism,” he said.

He added that Ankara would continue to aim to increase the number of Chinese tourists coming to Turkey in 2018.

“Around 250,000 tourists came to Turkey last year. There is no reason not to increase this number to 500,000.”

Kurtulmuş previously said Turkey hopes to attract at least 38 million tourists in 2018.

According to the Foreign Ministry website, Ankara considers tourism as a sector with the “potential” to further enhance cultural and economic ties with Beijing.

“Chinese tourists, visiting Turkey in a steadily rising number since 2002, are strengthening ties between Turkish and Chinese people,” it said.

Kurtulmuş also met Chinese Culture Minister Luo Shugang as part of his visit.

STRENGTHENING TIES BETWEEN TURKISH AND CHINESE PEOPLE Chinese tourists, visiting Turkey in a steadily rising number since 2002.

38

250

$50

EXPECTED TOURISTS IN 2018

CHINESE TOURISTS CAME TO TURKEY LAST YEAR

EXPECTED TRADE VOLUME WITH CHINA IN 2018

MILLION

THOUSAND

BILLION

BAŞKENTRAY ENTERS INTO SERVICE

After seven years of construction and renovation works, the Başkentray suburban line of Ankara entered into service.

The 36-kilometer “Başkentray” will operate on 15 tracks and 23 stations between the eastern suburb of Kayaş, the city center, and Sincan suburb to the west of the capital, according to the Turkish State Railways (TCDD).

During the opening ceremony, Erdoğan said Ankara had taken remarkable steps in modernizing the urban setting over the past 15 years.

Also speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Yıldırım said the project cost around 1.23 billion Turkish liras.

Yıldırım said the project was completed in 20 months.

The prime minister also said that the station buildings for the Eryaman highspeed rail station have been completed for the residents of Yıldırım, Yenimahalle, Sincan and Etimesgut to benefit from the highspeed rail line.

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AUTOMOTIVE

ECONOMY

Aim for €20B Trade Volume

$110M INVEST IN GEBZE OYAK invest $110 million in an automotive specialization port in Gebze with Japanese partner Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK).

Turkey and France have set a bilateral trade volume target of €20 billion by the end of 2019.

E

With the new investment, Oyak Port will have a shareholding structure in which Oyak owns 55 percent and NYK lays claim to 45 percent.

Oyak General Manager Savaş Erdemir said the investment is an important move for both Turkey and the international logistics industry.

Explaining that the automotive sector broke its all-time monthly export record this March and that it has been maintaining an upward trend for the last 26 months, Erdem said the production and export capacity in the automotive sector has played an important role in this investment decision.

CONOMY MINISTER NİHAT ZEYBEKCİ held bilateral

meetings with his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire and Minister of State in the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, during his visit to Paris held under the scope of Turkey-France Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO).

“We have set the target of raising our trade volume, which was $14.7 billion at the end of 2017, to €20 billion ($24.7 billion) by the end of 2019 and we will work one by one for this,” Zeybekci said.

Zeybekci said both countries were like-minded on the deal.

“We know very well that France also supports the Customs Union. We are pleased that France agrees with us and our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Zeybekci said and added: “It will take some time but we will see France’s support in EU meetings and during the process (of the Customs Union) in the forthcoming months, we obtained a promise of this here.”

ECONOMY

ENHANCING ECONOMIC TIES WITH THAILAND Turkey and Thailand discussed ways to enhance relations in the areas of transportation, maritime affairs and communication.

“Today, we will handle the bilateral relations in the areas of transportation, maritime (affairs) and communication and evaluate how to develop this cooperation further,” Turkish Minister of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ahmet Arslan said in a meeting with Thai Minister of Digital Economy and Society Pichet Durongkaveroj in the capital Ankara.

Arslan said the trade volume between the two countries had increased to $2.1 billion in 2017, compared to the previous year, which was $1.6 billion.

TURKEY SPENT BILLIONS IN HUMANITARIAN AID IN 2017 There has been a 25 percent increase in external assistance by Turkish organizations in 2017 compared with 2016.

$8.14 BILLION

TURKEY’S DEVELOPMENT AID IN 2017 MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

0.95% $7.20 BILLION

RATE OF OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT AID COMPARED TO GDP

TURKEY’S HUMANITARIAN AID IN 2017

$295

6th

PROVIDING AID TO THE WORLD’S LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN 2017

TURKEY’S RANK IN DEVELOPMENT AID

MILLION

The Turkish Perspective

ECONOMY

HIGH-SPEED TRAINS FROM SIEMENS Turkish State Railways sign a contract worth around $420M for high-speed trains.

Turkey will get new high-speed trains from Siemens under a $420 million worth agreement, the German industry giant announced.

“Turkish State Railways (TCDD) has signed a contract for ten Velaro high-speed trains with Siemens, which submitted the most favorable bid in the tender,” the company said.

“The contract is worth around €340 million and also includes maintenance, repair and cleaning of the trains for a period of three years,” it said.

Sabrina Soussan, CEO at the mobility division of Siemens, said the Velaro remains a “benchmark for high-speed trains” in terms of capacity and comfort.

TOURISM

Expect to Break Records This Year Antalya’s tourism professionals, who had a tough time in 2015 and 2016, started to recover in 2017, and are poised to renew records this year, crowning the offseason with golf tourism.

EXPORT

NEW RECORD FROM OLIVE OIL Turkey’s olive oil exports to US hit new record in first 5 months of season.

T

URKEY’S TOP holiday resort area of Antalya is getting ready to break a new record in golf tourism. Turkish Golf Federation Chair Ahmet Ağaoğlu recalled that in 2013, when American golfer Tiger Woods arrived, 600,000 games were played, while this year they will achieve a new record with 620,000 rounds.

This year, a new record is being set up by tourism professionals who reached an all-time high in the number of golfers in 2013, when Woods shot from Asia to Europe on the Bosporus Bridge.

Ağaoğlu said in Belek, a district in Antalya, where 600,000 rounds were played in 2013, that they plan to exceed this figure. “This year, we will reach 620,000 rounds.

Facilities will be 100 percent full.

We cannot exceed this figure. That is the final capacity,” Ağaoğlu said.

“Due to this pressure, the tournament was canceled. The foreign minister stepped in and we took the tournament back,” Ağaoğlu said. “Rory McIlroy did

not take part in the tournament, but due to his propaganda, we were down to 400,000 rounds last year.”

Despite last year’s attempt at a boycott, Ağaoğlu said that they reaped the fruits of the continuation of the tournament this year.”Last year, Sky News reported in the U.K. that Turkey is not safe, so do not go there, while Sky Sports and other channels portrayed Antalya as a paradise on earth. The British also realized that it was not based on truth, which led to serious demand this year,” Ağaoğlu said.

Ağaoğlu said that the Challenge Tour will be held in Samsun on May 19, 2019, the 100th anniversary of founder of the Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s landing in Samsun. “Interest from European tourists in the Black Sea will also increase with this competition,” he added.

Last year’s competition drew an audience of 1.5 billion people, which corresponded to $144.8 million in advertisement revenue.

Exports of olive oil to the U.S. in the first five months of the export season reached 16,500 tons in an increase of 206 percent compared to the same period the previous year, amounting to $67.3 million in value, up 251 percent.

According to the Aegean Olive and Olive Oil Exporters’ Association, the record was broken in Turkey’s olive oil exports in between Nov. 1, 2012 and Oct. 31, 2013, with 92,000 tons, totaling $292 million.In the first five months of the season starting on Nov.1, 2017, olive oil exports reached 42,265 tons, an increase of 102 percent compared to the same month the previous year, reaching $173 million. Exports in the first five months exceeded the $143 million achieved in the same period of the 2012-2013 season.

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ENERGY

BECOME IMPORTANT ENERGY PARTNER FOR EUROPE

Turkey will continue to become an important partner for the continent to sustain resource diversification and supply security, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak emphasized.

Albayrak said the role of renewable energy in the sector has reached a very different point today compared to 20 years ago.

M

INISTER BERAT ALBAYRAK elaborated on the essential quality of renewable energy resources for an everincreasing global energy demand while sharing remarks on the Turkey-Europe energy partnership.

Albayrak pointed out that the world has recently gone through an economic and political transition. “Within the new ecosystem, in a period when the East and West economies and consumption and growth are separated, we can put forward a rational and reasonable strategic plan that will create an accurate synergy based on the win-win model,” Minister Albayrak noted.

“As Turkey, with the dynamic energy growth potential forming the basis of our economic growth, we will continue to be a safe haven in the unstable countries and regions and most importantly an important partner for Europe at the point of resource diversity and energy supply security.”

Informing the conference that in renewable energy, costs have fallen and technology is advancing very quickly, Albayrak said MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

$44 BILLION

ANNUAL ENERGY IMPORTS OVER THE 10 YEARS

2

POWER PLANTS NUMER OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS WILL BE ACTIVE BY 2023

Minister Albayrak said at least a third of the increase in energy need and demand in the world will come from China and India before 2030.

74 MILLION

TURKISH LIRAS TRADE VOLUME IN ELECTRICITY MARKET

renewable energy is very important in terms of the resource diversity of the foreign-dependent countries in energy, such as Germany and Turkey. “We think that renewable energy is very important in terms of resource diversification and supply security. Turkey reaches $44 billion in annual energy imports alone in line with the average of the last 10 years, Albayrak continued. “It is a country that imports 90 to 95 percent of oil and natural gas.

As a country that provided 70 percent of its electricity consumption from import-based sources up until now, we have made it a priority to take important steps in renewable energy in this framework.”

Minister Albayrak said at least a third of the increase in energy need and demand in the world will come from China and India before 2030, noting that there has recently been a very rapid transition process in the world.

“We are rapidly moving toward a turning point where producers will become consumers and consumers will become producers.

The strategic change and transformation plans to be implemented here are of great importance,” Minister Albayrak said.

The Turkish Perspective

ENERGY

TURKEY'S GEOTHERMAL TARGET FOR 2030 QUADRUPLES

BUSINESS

DEFENSE

Çaykur opens factory in northern Pakistan The General Directorate of Tea Enterprises (Çaykur) opened its factory in the Mansehra region, around 200 kilometers from the capital Islamabad.

Target for 2023 of 1,000 megawatts exceeds expectations while 2030 target revises up to about 4,000 megawatts.

Turkey has already superseded its 2023 target for geothermal installed capacity which prompted a revision up of the 2030 target to 4000 megawatts (MW), General Directorate of Renewable Energy (YEGM) chief said.

Speaking at the opening session of Geothermal Turkey Workshop and Congress, held in Ankara, Oguz Can, the general manager of the YEGM, said that Turkey had a geothermal target for 2023 of 1,000 MW of installed capacity which has already been achieved.

A

TTENDING the opening ceremony were Çaykur Chairman Imdat Sütlüoğlu as well as Yusuf Zafar, the head of Pakistan's Agricultural Research Council, and Farrukh Hamid, the head of Pakistan's National Tea and High Value Crops Research Institute.

Sütlüoğlu said that the factory would have a daily production capacity of five tons.

Although Pakistanis consume a lot of tea, they are importing tea, he said, adding that the idea of opening a factory came from Pakistan itself.

According to official data, Pakistan spent over 23 billion Pakistani rupees (around $220 million) on tea imports during the first six months of 2017.

Over the past two decades, the country's tea imports have ballooned over 325 percent.

Sütlüoğlu said that the facility would make a great contribution to the development of tea farming in Pakistan.

"This plant is a small gift from Turkey to Pakistan," he added.

Turkey is ready to support Pakistan on tea saplings as well.

KEY PLAYER OF THE TEA MARKET

Çaykur is involved in 38 countries in Europe, 37 in Africa, 15 in Asia, 14 in the Mideast, and six in the Americas.

110

56

THE NUMBER OF COUNTRIES ÇAYKUR'S EXPORT

THE NUMBER OF FACTORIES ÇAYKUR THEY HAVE

CONTRIES

FACTORIES

220

$

MILLION

PAKISTAN TEA IMPORTS DURING FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2017

EXPAND IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) will showcase its ANKA unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at a defense exhibition in Malaysia.

With a view to enlarge export portfolios with Asian countries, leading Turkish defense firms will once again attend an international defense fair in Malaysia to showcase their latest air and land platforms.

Turkish defense giants looking to expand their export markets in Asia are poised to participate in the Defense Services Asia (DSA) Exhibition and Conference scheduled to take place in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, April 16-19.

Turkey's leading defense company, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), will showcase its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ANKA, advanced attack and tactical reconnaissance helicopter T129 ATAK and the new generation basic trainer HÜRKUŞ, as well as national jet fighter TF-X, at the fair.

The company is expected to establish strong cooperation in Malaysia by particularly featuring ANKA.

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The Turkish Perspective

Panorama

BY H. BADER ARSLAN, PHD SECRETARY GENERAL TURKISH EXPORTERS’ ASSEMBLY

WHY INNOVATION IS CRUCIAL FOR TURKEY’S GROWTH There is a great chance for Turkey’s future to be taken, and it has to be used in the most efficient way.

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Panorama

A

FTER A SHAKY Q2 AND Q3 in 2016; Turkey has started the year in a promising way while pushing away the uncertainties. According to the annual growth figures, Turkey has become the fastest growing economy last year, among the G20 countries, with 7.4% growth rate.

However, the focus should be concentrated upon the structural reforms and new investments if Turkey is to achieve further growth in the upcoming years. Capacity utilization rate has reached 78% this year. Proving that Turkey needs to diversify its product range via new investments and innovate new paths in new sectors and markets to reach further growth.

Export price per kilogram was $1.37, and Turkey’s share in global trade was 0.89% in 2017 indicating a necessity to produce more value-added products and enter more markets in the world to improve its share in global trade.

The importance of value-addedproduction becomes clearer when the sectoral differences are inspected; the defense and aerospace sector with $39.7 and apparel sector with $14.9 per kilograms are the two of the leading sectors in price. This is a concrete evidence that a product gains more value according to the amount of R&D and design investment poured into the final product.

According to TURKSTAT figures Turkey has been increasing its R&D investments in the last decade from $4.3 billion in 2006 to $24 billion in 2016. Also the share of R&D expenditure in GDP was 0.56% back in 2006. Now the share equals to 0.9%. Yet, there is still much more to be done. This ratio is 4.3% in Israel, 4.2% in South Korea, 3.4% in Switzerland, 3.3% in Japan, and 3.3% in Sweden. These economies reached these levels with years of investment and specialization strategies, which Turkey should consider as strong examples while planning our road map.

Even though R&D investments are crucial for development, increasing the savings for an R&D project or for a new investment might put a firm between rock and a hard place.

Especially firms operating in a fast serving competitive market, and the ones working with deferred payments find it next to impossible to save the extra budget for innovative projects even they have the idea. Rewards of a new product development process are usually a long term gain. Therefore, the SME’s, who consist almost 90% of Turkish economy, are reluctant to invest in such projects. Hence, governments have to support the efforts of private sector for new product development projects.

At this point, Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) conducts several projects which were launched in order to support these efforts, and encourage exporters to innovate new products and build new facilities to expand their production.

The projects are mainly divided in five categories; research and development, innovation, design, branding and entrepreneurship. Since 2012, TİM has been organizing the event “Turkey Innovation Week” in Istanbul. In 2017, the event’s name transformed to “Turkey Innovation and Entrepreneurship” with a motive to get entrepreneurs, investors and product developers under same roof. The idea is to create Global Born Companies which could bring fresh blood to Turkey’s economy. To serve this purpose, Born Global Istanbul stayed in as a unique organization within Turkey Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week, which hosted around 80,000 people with sessions on entrepreneurship, B2B negotiations, and pitching sessions.

With Turkish Economy Bank, TİM launched another project called “TİMTEB Entrepreneurship Houses” aiming to create several hubs around Turkey.

This “houses” operate as incubation and acceleration centers, and with their local structure, they are first of their kind in the world. For now, there are ten entrepreneurship houses which keep on searching for new skills, new projects, and new entrepreneurs in İzmir, İstanbul, Gaziantep, Denizli, Bursa, Mersin, Edirne, Konya, Trabzon and Erzurum. Moreover, the outcomes of the project are already beyond our expectations. The amount of individual entrepreneurs has reached 572 under the “entrepreneurship houses” in three years.

The perspective of integrating innovative know-how and higher value-added production, has settled in as an idea for a considerable amount of Turkish companies. However, these companies have to be more dedicated in their attempts on the integration of innovation and R&D into their business, and be patient about getting the desired results. For instance, Turkey witnessed a tremendous growth in defense industry since 2012, and with the realization of the products, the industry have started to produce results from the beginning of 2017.

R&D is a long journey, what companies should do in order to succeed is to adapt quickly to new trends and be innovative in setting new ones. Especially in digitalization, early implementers of the new technology will become the flagships of the global economy. The Industry 4.0 is knocking the door, and Turkey has to act rapidly and create a political framework which can ease firms’ transformation.

R&D is a long journey, what companies should do in order to succeed is to adapt quickly to new trends and be innovative in setting new ones.

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The Turkish Perspective Content: Looking for the Future P18 Journey of a Lifetime P20 One Festival, Two Continents P23 Collaboration With Seven Major Banks P26 The Greatest Technology Summit P29 Turkish Aviation Academy Hosts Top Aviation Training Conference P32 Cisco Commissions Innovation Center Istanbul at İTÜ Arı Teknokent P34 Editor: Mustafa Yiğit

Briefing

ENTREPRENEURSHIP, ECONOMY, INTERVIEW, ART & CULTURE, TECHNOLOGY, AVIATION, INVESTMENT...

GEC ISTANBUL 2018: THE WORLD’S MOST THRIVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP MEETUP Hosted by a new emerging entrepreneurship hub city each year, Istanbul successfully hosted the 10th anniversary of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress with over 7.000 entrepreneurship ecosystem builders from 170 countries.

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Briefing

RECOGNIZED AS THE WORLD’S MOST dynamic entrepreneurship ecosystem builder’s annual meetup, the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) hosted in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 15-19th featured inspiring business leaders from Turkey and around the globe with over 7.000 participants from 170 countries.

Each year the GEC serves to align private, public and NGO resources and goals around setting national, regional and global entrepreneurship ecosystem building agendas.

The GEC18 Istanbul was formally launched on Monday, April 16th 2018 with an address by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci.

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci stressed that financing can always be found but to find entrepreneurs was the true challenge.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would provide considerable support to entrepreneurs as “huge targets” needed “huge reforms”.

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“Economy is a game of which the rules are changing day by day, and we can move on the road with research and development, and design centers,” Zeybekci said at the opening ceremony of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul.

Zeybekci added that new incetive-based Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci stressed that financing can always be found but to find entrepreneurs was the true challenge.

organizations would be created until the end of the year in order to contribute to the reduction of Turkey’s current deficit.

“We invite enterpreneurs from all around the world to invest in Turkey,” he said.

The public opening ceremony of the GEC18, also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the congress, started with remarks from the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) President Jonathan Ortmans and the GEC Istanbul Organizing Committee Chair Ali Sabancı on Tuesday, April 17th. Opening Plenary Speakers also included the Endeavor Turkey Chair Emre Kurttepeli, Habitat Chair Sezai Hazır, Turkish Exporters Assembly Chairman Mehmet Büyükeksi, Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey Vice President Ender Yorgancılar, Coca Cola Chair Muhtar Kent, Doğanonline Chair Hanzade Doğan Boyner, Sabancı Holding CEO Mehmet Göçmen, and Arçelik Chief Innovation Officer Erkut Duysal. The final day at the congress venue continued to include the most influential voices from the Turkish and international business community discussing industry trends and corporate entrepreneurship responsibility, including a video speech addressing the GEC delegates presented

by Dr. Mehmet Oz on Wednesday, April 18th.

The GEC18 Istanbul also featured a Startup Nations Ministerial hosted by the Turkish Minister of Development Lütfi Elvan on Sunday, April 15th including Ministers and

The Turkish Perspective

One major outcome of the GEC18IST for Turkey has been a commitment to encourage and support more “born global” startups.

executive level delegates from the World Bank, European Union and OECD representing over 30 countries. The GEC18 international delegates were also invited to participate in various site visits to incubators, co-working spaces and entrepreneur headquarters on Thursday, April 19th.

The Istanbul Organizing Committee for the GEC18 included Endeavor, Habitat, TİM and TOBB led by Platform Chair Ali Sabancı and Platform General Manager Didem Altop who came together with the aim of strengthening Istanbul’s candidacy as a world class entrepreneurship hub. The GEC18’s strategic partners included Koç Holding and Sabancı Holding, as well as, Pegasus Airlines as the main airline carrier. The GEC18’s content partners included over 60 companies and 50 NGOs from Turkey, collectively raising 8MM TL for the congress budget.

An estimated 7.000 visitors from 170 countries participated in the GEC18IST during April 16-19th, including more than

ALİ SABANCI

DİDEM ALTOP

GEC18IST Platform Chair

GEC18IST Platform General Manager

The process of designing the GEC18IST has become a true bonding experience for the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem as we all came together to collaboratively host a global community.

Hosting the GEC which travels to a new city every year provided us a unique opportunity to showcase Istanbul and Turkey’s entrepreneurship ecosystem to a world audience. While the chance to host the GEC is a once in a lifetime experience, the desire of all the GEC18IST partners to continue this spirit of collaboration beyond the GEC is truly inspiring. First and foremost, we need to thank the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci and the Minister of Development Lütfi Elvan for their crowning contribution to the GEC through their endorsement and active participation.

Their recognition of the GEC18IST has uplifted entrepreneurship as a key priority of the national agenda.”

“Hosting global members of the entrepreneurship ecosystem as a collaborative initiative across the Turkish ecosystem was very exciting. On behalf of all of our GEC18IST ecosystem partners, we were deeply honored by the commitment of the Turkish President, Economy Minister and Development Minister in recognizing and supporting our efforts.

Ali Sabancı’s leadership truly turned an eclectic group of people from very different organizations into a cohesive team. The engagement of more than 60 corporate partners and 50 NGO partners is an unprecedented level of collaboration.

It is also indicative of our collective desire and dedication to continue working together in synch towards the common goals of developing and strengthening the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

300 expert speakers lending their voices across more than 150 parallel sessions.

Some additional examples of prominent Turkish voices included: Pegasus CEO Mehmet Nane, Allianz Turkey Chair Cansen Basaran Symes, Zorlu Holding Board Member Emre Zorlu, Fiba Holding Board Member Murat Ozyegin, Limak Holding Chair Ebru Ozdemir, Garanti Bank Digital Banking Assistant General Manager Didem Dincer Basar and TBMM Industry and Energy Commission Chair Ziya Atlunyaldiz.

In addition to featuring three main stages, the GEC18IST also featured six Panel Tracks to explore and debate industry and ecosystem trends plus six Workshop Tracks and six interactive discussion Learning Hub tracks. The main themes of the GEC included: Innovation Culture, Exponential Thinking and Zero Barriers.

The importance of the GEC annual event is two-fold: first as the most important meetup of global entrepreneurship ecosystem leaders for peer-to-peer exchange and networking, and; second as an arena for significant national, regional and global agenda setting.

In this respect, one major outcome of the GEC18IST for Turkey has been a commitment to encourage and support more “born global” startups.

The 2019 GEC will be hosted in Manama, Bahrain.

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Briefing

Executives of leading firms in Turkey want to see more Turkish brands marketed globally.

Cupica eti, sederox medo, que is nonducid pecrimuracio inc videmedit. Bem te tem, sis; inihillaric tum

ECONOMY

7Th Uludag Economy Summit:

LOOKING FOR THE FUTURE

One of Turkey’s most important economy summits, the Uludağ Economy Summit is organized by Capital and Ekonomist magazines and was held in northwestern Bursa province.

BY SERAP KAYA

T

HE TWO-DAY EVENT,

the main theme of which is “Future”, addressed a variety of subjects such as agriculture, health, production, banking, digitalization and entrepreneurship.

Leaders from political world took part in the event, including Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak, former Croatia MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek said that liberality is the key for global economic growth.

President Ivo Josipovic, former Dutch Minister of Health Care and Sports Ab Klink and former German Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr.

Prominent names in the business community have been among the speakers at the summit include Pegasus Airlines’ Chairman Ali Sabanci, Torunlar REIC Chief Executive Officer Aziz Torun, Vodafone Turkey’s Chief Executive Officer Colman

Deegan, Facebook Turkey’s Country Manager Derya Matraş, Turk Telekom’s Paul Doany and Autonomous Mobility’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Sorgenfrei from Turkey and around the world.

Speaking at the 7th Uludağ Economy Summit, Şimşek said that liberality is the key for global economic growth.

“Millions of people came out of poverty and found better health and education opportunities. Global average life expectancy rose,” he added. All countries around the world are growing but usually such synchronized growth does not last long, he added. “Synchronized growth periods lead to rises in oil prices, inflationary pressures, and tightening monetary policies, which are the largest risks in the short-term,” Şimsek said.

TURKISH FIRMS EYE GLOBAL BRANDING Executives of leading firms in Turkey want to see more Turkish brands marketed globally, participants at a large business summit heard on Friday 23 March.

Traditional Turkish food chain Simit Sarayı is negotiating with another chain which has 85 locations in London to run them under the Turkish brand, company head Abdullah Kavukçu told the 7th Uludag Economy Summit in the northwestern province of Bursa. Simit Sarayı already has dozens of branches in London, he stressed. The company also has hundreds of branches in 22 countries, according to its

PHOTOGRAPH BYLOREM IPSUM

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The Turkish Perspective

website. “We will enter two countries this year, and we will penetrate the Far Eastern market in 2019,” he added.

Kavukcu said the chain hopes to open 1,000 new branches overseas within five years and added: “We open stores in the world’s best places.

We want to make our brand name well-known around the world.”

Gulden Sonmez, who serves on the board of leading Turkish clothing chain Koton, said developing and globalizing the Turkish fashion sector and Turkish brands are the most important opportunities in the Turkish ready-wear sector. She said Turkey’s clothing sector could easily create global brands.

Omer Kizil, the CEO of soft drink maker Uludag, also said Turkish brands should adopt smart branding strategies to grow abroad. Kizil added that Uludag’s drinks are popular in German stores, where their lemonade became a “phenomenon”. He said Uludag’s mineral water has a better quality than worldfamous brands, and they should capitalize on this.

Umit Zaim, the CEO of leading Turkish leather company Deriden, said that they first hope to become a regional brand name and afterwards enter the European market.

PHOTOGRAPH BYLOREM IPSUM

BLOCKCHAIN REVOLUTION Consumers are expected to take advantage of blockchain technology which will make the transfer of money faster, cheaper and safer, Turkish private lender Akbank Chief Executive Officer Hakan Binbasgil said on Friday. He said that Akbank had tested blockchain -- a technology that records and verifies transactions safely based on cryptography -- with major

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek warned that it could soon rain, reassuring the public that Turkey would take necessary measures.

worldwide banks. “We started to test this technology two years back and transferred money to our branch in Germany,” The founder of advisory and investment firm M Factory Ventures, Murat Emirdag, said the population of the world is expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050, of which almost all will use mobile

internet.

“Change, that we will see in the coming 10 years, will be more than it was in the past 40 years due to technology,” he said.

Mentioning topical technology issues such as the internet of things (IoT), blockchain and robotic vehicles, Emirdag highlighted that new working areas will occur and working models will change.

“All countries around the world are growing but usually such synchronized growth does not last long.”

The EU should be enlarged from London to Turkish borders in the east, former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said on Saturday.

Speaking at a session titled “The Future of Europe” during

EU SHOULD INCLUDE TURKEY

the 7th Uludag Economy Summit in northwestern Bursa province, Josipovic said: “Europe is not complete without Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and all the other countries, including Turkey.” He said the EU needs to ask itself: “Do we want to enlarge or to make barrier on our borders?” Former Yugoslavian’s members of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia should also be allowed to join the EU, he said.

“People usually forget that the EU is not primarily thought as an economical project, it was a peace project by economical tools,” he said. He called Turkey a “huge ship” while Croatia a “small boat”.”Turkey is really big part with its economy, military, science, education, health,” Josipovic said. Therefore, it would be harder for Turkey to adapt its society to some requirements of the EU than smaller countries like Croatia.

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Briefing

SUCCESS IS NOT ACCIDENTAL

JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME

We had a pleasant conversation with Erden Eruç, who was the first Turk to row the ocean with his shovel, the first person to row 3 different oceans in history, and many others…

BY RAMAZAN GÜZYURDU

I

MAGINE A GOAL SO

unfathomable that others would doubt one’s sanity. A challenge so daunting that to accomplish it, one would take many small steps in rapid succession and often be forced to make giant leaps noteworthy in their own right, for a total of 14 Guinness World Records. A dream so captivating that it would become a compass serving as the true north to one’s life, a rudder to his efforts and an all-draining magnet for all his resources be it temporal, financial or social. Such was the idea to accomplish a circumnavigation by human power for the TurkishAmerican adventurer Erden Eruç, hailing from

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A dream so captivating that it would become a compass serving as the true north to one’s life.

Gig Harbor, Washington in United States.

As a lifelong athlete and outdoorsman, Erden had been living the 8-to5 life of an information technology consultant and project manager until 2002 when the death of a climbing friend shook him to his core. He held Masters degrees in both engineering and in business management and his career interests were keeping him captive although he longed for adventures in the mountains. He would daydream between coding sessions, imagining himself traversing snowy ridges on Everest or scaling granite big walls of Baffin Island. That

world map on his office wall in Washington, DC? Yeah, that got his attention one day in 1997...

This map was special.

Pacific in the middle with the Americas on the right and the old world on the left.

He traced his finger on that map from there to Turkey and imagined a “Journey Home.” Could this be done by human power? The big “what if ” question had turned into multiple “how” questions to be answered, each of which was a problem to solve.

Being an engineer, Erden was trained as a problem solver so he embraced the idea. However, those around him were not so enthused.

The Turkish Perspective

The two common questions he received were whether this had been done before and whether he had done anything like that in his life. Erden quickly learned that not everyone needed to know. He sought others with similar journeys and found books about prior expeditions one of which was “Ultimate High” – a book about the impressive bicycle journey of the Swede Göran Kropp from Stockholm to Nepal towing his climbing gear on a trailer to climb Mount Everest back in 1996. By the time Erden moved to Seattle in 1999, he had decided to extend his dream into an around the world journey which would bring him back to where he started.

As luck would have it, Göran held a presentation in Seattle in the summer of 2001 which was the first time that they met. When Erden shared his dream with Göran, there was no hesitation: “When are you starting?” “Do you have sponsors?”

In September of 2002, they finally had the chance to go rock climbing together for the first time. On a cool overcast day in Frenchman Coulee in eastern Washington, they spent an entire day scaling

short basalt columns, hopeful that this would lead to bigger projects together. It was not to be. On the last climb of the day, Göran fell to his death while Erden was belaying.

This was the turning point when the realization sank in that life was short. There would be no more excuses.

On the flight back from Göran’s funeral in Stockholm, Erden drew the world map on the proverbial napkin and marked the highest mountains on six different continents except Antarctica.

He was going to reach each one of these by human power and to summit them. The Six Summits Project was born.

Mt. McKinley in Alaska was the closest one. Erden rode his bicycle across British Columbia and Yukon in winter conditions while towing his climbing gear on a trailer as Göran had to Everest. After a month-long climb which included snowshoeing the entire length of the Kahiltna Glacier on the approach, he reached the summit with his teammates. The best part of this trip was marrying Nancy Board in a traditional Alaskan wedding ceremony in Homer before bicycling back to Seattle. They had met Göran together.

Erden found aggressive conditions on the Indian Ocean, breaking three oars while struggling to make progress toward Kenya.

His circumnavigation by human power would not start until after Erden acquired an ocean rowboat then rowed it solo across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Guadeloupe in early 2006.

Once he felt ready, Erden launched on the blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean from Bodega Bay in July 2007.

His intended destination was Australia; yet, that season’s strong La Nina winds would not allow him south of the equator, driving him west.

312 days after his launch, a record duration for a solo ocean rower, his boat was picked up in Papua New Guinea waters. The rules allowed him to continue from the same location after the typhoon season to reach land.

What followed was beach walking and sea kayaking the Solomon Sea shores of that exotic country then walking across tropical mountains using the Kokoda Track to reach Port Moresby by the Coral Sea. Navigating the gauntlet of the Great Barrier Reef from there, then first sea kayaking and later bicycling the coastline clockwise to reach Western Australia would take him 7 months.

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Briefing

Start Finish

Erden Oruç’s Route

Nancy would join him on the easy climb of Mt. Kosciuszko, the highest point on that continent.

Erden found aggressive conditions on the Indian Ocean, breaking three oars while struggling to make progress toward Kenya.

Piracy had been a concern on the approach and further communications with international naval forces led to a decision for a course change which then forced him ashore on Madagascar.

With this, Erden was declared the first person to row the three major oceans.

After the cyclone season, he would row across the Mozambique Channel to the African mainland then bicycle north. Nancy and his then 79 year old father who had introduced Erden to mountaineering, would join him to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa. The following bicycle journey would take him back across Tanzania, then Zambia and Namibia to Lüderitz Bay, his launch point on the South Atlantic Ocean.

After a short touchdown in Venezuela, Erden rowed the Caribbean and the Gulf MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

Erden Eruç is planning new expeditions which could lead to multiple new records and create opportunities for additional educational outreach.

of Mexico to make landfall in Cameron, Louisiana in May 2012. A month of cycling brought him back to his starting point. 5 years 11 days 12 hours 22 minutes was the official duration for his circumnavigation journey.

Erden has since been honored with a Citation of Merit from the prestigious Explorers Club and established the new course record of 54 days 3 hours 45 minutes between Monterey, California and Waikiki, Hawaii in “Classic Pairs” class of rowboats together with Louis Bird in 2016 – Erden’s 15th Guinness World Record. He has so far been published in the 2009, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018 books of Guinness World Records.

During his circumnavigation, the nonprofit that Erden established has raised over 100,000 USD to primarily benefit boarding school students in rural Turkey.

Pending sponsorships, Erden is planning new expeditions which could lead to multiple new records and create opportunities for additional educational outreach. In the long run, he also intends to complete the Six Summits Project in memory of Göran Kropp by traveling to Elbrus, Aconcagua and Everest by human power before summitting them.

With his track record of accomplishments to date, Erden has proven to the world that success is not accidental.

The Turkish Perspective

The Istanbul Film Festival was first presented as a film week in the summer of 1982.

History of İstanbul Film Festival

ART & CULTURE

One Festival, Two Continents:

The 37th İstanbul Film Festival

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), Turkey’s biggest international cinema event Istanbul Film Festival with a programme comprising highlights from Turkey and world cinema took place between 6 and 17 April 2018.

BY İBRAHIM AVCI

THE ISTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL had a rich

programme in its 37th edition that ranges from the latest productions of world cinema to cult films, to the latest titles from Turkey and classics alike, new discoveries, masterpieces, and hidden treasures.

The festival hosted 198 feature films, as well as 12 short films, in 18 different categories.

The festival hosted 198 feature films, as well as 12 short films, in 18 different categories, and in addition to the screening of a total of 210 films by 218 directors from 43 countries, organised also Q&As and festival talks with guest filmmakers, concerts, and other special events.

The Istanbul Film Festival was first presented as a film week in the summer of 1982, within the framework of the International Istanbul Festival. In 1983, under the title “International Istanbul Film Days”, 36 films were shown in one month.

Beginning in 1984, the event became a separate activity and was shifted to April. In 1985, with the incentive of Şakir Eczacıbaşı, two competitive sections, one national and the other international, were included in the Festival program. The grand prize of the festival, the first ever Golden Tulip, was given this year to Michael Radford for his film 1984. Accredited by FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) in 1989 as a “specialised competitive festival”, the “film week” thus was renamed the Istanbul Film Festival. The festival since 2016 awards the Golden Tulip to a film that reflects “new perspectives in cinema.”

The Festival features an international competition, provides a broad showcase for recent Turkish film productions, and thus represents a rewarding medium where Turkish and foreign filmmakers get together. The Festival draws a special interest to world classics, presenting retrospectives, and curated sections included in its programme which comprises

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Briefing

The festival kicked off with the Opening Gala on Friday evening, 6 April at Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Centre.

close to 200 titles, making it the most comprehensive film festival in Turkey.

Numerous filmmakers, actors and actresses visited the festival at its past editions, such as, Claudia Cardinale, Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel, John Malkovich, Jeanne Moreau, Greta Scacchi, Sophia Loren, Patricia Arquette, Stephen Dorff, Barbara Sukowa, Jane Birkin, Ian McKellen; Bernardo Bertolucci, Chantal Akerman, François Ozon, Paul Schrader, Tsai Ming-liang, Park Chanwook, Neil Jordan, Jane Campion, Alain RobbeGrillet, Bertrand Tavernier, Carlos Saura, Nanni Moretti, Theo Angelopoulos, Paul Cox, Abbas Kiarostami, Jerry Schatzberg, Youssef Chahine, Emir Kusturica, Elia Kazan, Nikita Mikhalkov, Ken Russell, Roger Corman, István Szabó, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Nagisa Oshima, Ettore Scola, Michelangelo Antonioni, Peter Greenaway, Stephen Frears, Gus Van Sant, Alexander Sokurov, Jerzy Skolimowski, Marco Bellocchio, Klaus MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

Maria Brandauer, Tony Gatlif, Todd Solondz, Elia Suleiman, Béla Tarr, Claire Denis, Claude Lanzmann, Leos Carax, Terence Davies, Ann Hui, Costa-Gavras, Peter Weir, Mike Figgis, Carlos Reygadas, Bille August, Marin Karmitz, Pawel Pawlikowski, Rolf De Heer, Lone Scherfig, Raoul Peck, Asghar Farhadi, and Volker Schlöndorff.

The Istanbul Film Festival has, over the past 36 years, presented Istanbul audiences with a total of

Numerous filmmakers, actors and actresses visited the festival at its past editions.

more than 5,128 films, showcasing the cinema of 109 countries, and attracting a total audience number of 3,842,000. The Festival, since 1984, is being organised in the month of April.

The 37th Istanbul Film Festival The festival kicked off with the Opening Gala on Friday evening, 6 April at Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Centre, which brought the stars and distinguished figures of the

cinema of Turkey together, as well as international guests such as the world-renowned director Peter Greenaway, his wife and multimedia artist Saskia Boddeke, and the celebrated actor Travis Fimmel.

In his opening speech, İKSV General Director Görgün Taner said: “The Istanbul Film Festival is an event that is unified with its audience and the city, with significant contributions to the nurturing of a generation of filmmakers and film audience. We believe the meticulously curated sections and sophisticated selection of the festival will expand the intellectual horizons of many more filmmakers and film lovers. We would like to thank all our sponsors and supporters, especially the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, for their contributions and this year’s Festival Sponsor, Vodafone Red. We would also like to thank our valuable press members for their efforts in the announcement of our festival.”

The Istanbul Film Festival was attended by over 100.000 cinephiles and showcased 198 feature, 12 short and 10 VR films in 13 days at 9 movie theatres in 478 screenings.

The Festival hosted also 6 festival talks, 2 concerts, 2 exhibitions, a performance, and other special events. 131 of the 478 screenings were held with the participation of film crews and guests.

The Turkish Perspective

Ottoman Miniatures on the Poster This year, Murat Palta, who started his studies with his graduation thesis titled “Film Posters with Miniature Techniques”, and continued his experimental work with traditional (Ottoman) motifs and contemporary Western cinema, designed the poster of the 37th Istanbul Film Festival.

Created by Murat Palta with miniature style, the festival poster comprises iconic characters from the cult films of the cinema history: A Clockwork Orange, Arabesk, Donnie Darko, İpekçe, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Seventh Seal, and The Wizard of Oz. Murat Palta expressed his excitement in bringing such a work together with the Istanbul Film Festival and said, “It is delightful to be involved in such a relevant project, an international festival in Istanbul, with my work. The logic of illustrating world cinema in miniature style that I employ in my own work is reflected in this poster in the same manner.

Characters of local and international films to be shown in the festival, or films significant to the history of cinema even though they will not be shown in the festival, came together on this poster for the festival.”

“The Istanbul Film Festival is an event that is unified with its audience and the city, with significant contributions to the nurturing of a generation of filmmakers and film audience.”

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Golden Tulip – Western (Valeska Grisebach) Special Jury Prize – Cocote (Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias) Human Rights in Cinema Award – Šerkšnas / Frost (Sharunas Bartas)

NATIONAL COMPETITION Meetings on the Bridge The 13th edition of Meetings on the Bridge, organised within the scope of the 37th Istanbul Film Festival on 11-14 April 2018, brings filmmakers from Turkey and the neighbouring countries together with professionals from the international industry.

A total of 17 film projects and 6 films in post-production with international potential by emerging talents and also acclaimed filmmakers from Turkey and the neighbouring countries Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Syria were presented at Meetings on the Bridge workshops this year.

Directors and producers of

the selected films attended more than 205 meetings with 95 international cinema professionals from Europe and the rest of the world and took the first steps for future collaborations.

And the Golden Tulip goes to…

The 37th Istanbul Film Festival announced the award-winners at a ceremony held at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum on April 17. Sixty films vied in national and international competitions at this year’s festival.

In this year’s International Competition, 11 films from 11 countries were evaluated to receive the grand prize of the festival, the Golden Tulip.

Golden Tulip – Borç / Debt (Vuslat Saraçoğlu) Best Director – Tayfun Pirselimoğlu (Yol Kenarı / Sideway) Special Jury Prize – Kelebekler / Butterflies (Tolga Karaçelik) Best Screenplay – Ümit Ünal for Sofra Sırları / Serial Cook Best Actress – Demet Evgar in Sofra Sırları / Serial Cook Best Actor –Tolga Tekin in Kelebekler / Butterflies & Tansu Biçer in Yol Kenarı / Sideway Best Cinematographer – Florent Herry for Kaçış / The Escape Best Editing – Osman Bayraktaroğlu for Sofra Sırları / Serial Cook Best Original Music – Canset Özge Can for Güvercin / The Pigeon The winner of Golden Tulip in the International Coopetition is Western, directed by Valeska Grisebach.

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Briefing

COLLABORATION WITH SEVEN MAJOR BANKS

ACCESS TO FINANCE AND COSTS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEMS

Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) signed a cooperation protocol with seven major banks in order to meet the financial needs of 71 thousand exporter companies.

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URKISH EXPORTERS

continues to work at full speed with the intention of helping 71 thousand exporting companies throughout Turkey to meet their financial needs. In this context TİM, signed a protocol with seven banks. The protocol which was held in TİM’s Headquarters in Yenibosna, was signed by, TİM Chairman Mehmet Büyükekşi, the General Manager of Halkbank Osman Arslan, the General Manager of Denizbank Hakan Ateş, the General Manager of Albaraka Türk Melikşah Utku, the Deputy General Manager of İş Bankası Şahismail Şimşek, the Deputy General Manager of Şekerbank Umut Ülbegi, the Deputy General Manager of Vakıfbank Ersin Özoğuz, and the Deputy General Manager of Akbank Bülent Oğuz.

ASSEMBLY

With the protocols, banks will provide exclusive services to exporters and appropriate conditions will be provided in various credit types, with bank capital or Eximbank origin. In terms of non-cash loans, letters of guarantee and letters of credit will be facilitated. Deposit insurance products, treasury transactions, commercial card services, financial leases and insurance transactions will be some of the areas

where important privileges will be granted to exporters.

In addition, the banks will participate in research and studies on the export and export financing issues.

Access to finance and financing costs became the most important concern of exporters.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, TİM Chairman Mehmet Büyükekşi noted that access to finance and financing costs became the most important concern of exporters. He continued his words as following: “With the protocols we drew up, our aim is to support our companies. That means, we take our share of responsibility in solving their problems. We all know; we go through a period of time in which interest rates are rising in global markets as well as in our country. This situation, of course, adversely affects both our investments and our exports”.

Emphasizing that 19 firms received Project Based Investment Incentive System Incentive Certificates for 23 projects and that the planned investment was worth 135 billion TRY, Büyükekşi added: “We are very well aware that if our exporters go hand in hand with our banks, we can easily raise this figure at much higher levels. By reducing borrowing costs, we can make it easier for our exporters to do business”.

“I EXPECT POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION FROM THE BANKS”

Reminding that just as TİM expressed the need for a positive discrimination to see more women in the management of the Exporter Associations, Büyükekşi added: “Banks should also make positive discrimination in favor of exporters. For Turkey to truly provide sustainable growth, increase production and employment and reduce the current deficit, export and tourism are essential. For that reason, I attach big importance to this protocol.

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The Turkish Perspective

INCENTIVE FOR 19 COMPANIES

The Turkish government has announced the details of a new project of $34 billion package in an effort to create new jobs and push down the country’s rising current account deficit.

I

N ACCORDANCE WITH the

scheme, 19 companies will be granted incentives for a total of 23 projects, through which 35,000 new jobs are aimed to be created directly.

The planned investments are also expected to create 134,000 indirect jobs, according to the statement by the Ministry of Economy on April 9.

Further details of the program were announced in an official ceremony on April 9 in Ankara by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci.

Stating that they have managed to make Turkey grow 3.5 times bigger over the past 15 years, increasing the national income from 236 billion dollars to 860 billion dollars, President Erdoğan noted that they have achieved an average growth rate of 5.8 percent between 2003 and 2017.

“It is a historic success that the annual export volume has increased from $36B to $160B” Pointing out that they also ensure that the income arising from this growth is distributed fairly, President Erdoğan underlined that it is a historic success that as of March the annual export volume has increased from $36 billion to $160 billion.

Stressing that the recession in the field of tourism that occurred due to the coup attempt and terror incidents has been compensated for to a great extent, President Erdoğan gave the good news that both the number of

The positive impacts of these incentives will be seen in the next two or three years.

tourists and the income from tourism are expected to break records in the upcoming season.

Referring to the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, for which the ground has recently been broken, President Erdoğan said that it will not only supply 10 percent of Turkey’s electricity demand but also bring in young people with high qualifications and careers and added that when the system becomes stable and

the construction phase accelerates, the employment capacity, which is 3 500, will reach 10 000.

Through the scheme, an additional $19 billion contribution to the economy is eyed by cutting the current account deficit.

“We will see the positive impacts of these incentives in the next two or three years,” Zeybekci said, adding that all of the investments under the coverage were either direct or foreign-partnered.

“We aim at growing Turkey’s economy through policies that would raise production and productivity, reducing the inflation rate and relieving Turkey’s high borrowing costs,” he added.

BOOST IN EMPLOYMENT Alvi Medica, Assan, Atayurt, armored vehicle producer BMC, CFS, Dow Aksa, Ekore, Ersan, polyester maker SASA, İpek Mobilya, Most Makine, Siirt Bakır, Metkap Enerji, TUSAŞ, Oyak Renault, Yıldız Metalürji, dairy producer SÜTAŞ, Tosyalı and technology and appliance manufacturer Vestel will benefit from the new incentives.

The biggest investment will be made by Vestel, as the company will realize an energy saving systems for electric vehicles for 28.4 billion liras ($7 billion).

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Briefing

KOLAYDESTEK.GOV.TR IS ONLINE!

The website of www.kolaydestek.gov.tr is put into service to easily follow the regulations on export supports and to abolish the problem of access to documents by the Ministry of Economy.

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HE PROCESS OF

of kolaydestek.gov.tr is started when Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci gave instruction to experts, who made hundreds of interviews with the companies. The interviews were made to be able to detect the problems of implementation of supports, provided by the Ministry of Economy and to solve those problems.

The result of interviews was that the companies had difficulties to access, understand, and comment the regulations, that they cannot easily apply, and even they apply some companies think they will not be provided with the supports. Companies also founded a occupational group called “Consultancy for Government Supports”.

It was decided that the first Behavioral Public Policy Unit of our country “Nudge Turkey”, which is under the roof of Ministry of Economy, would directly contact to the companies who do not CREATION

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have any information about the supports. Nudge Turkey will inform the companies about the supports by a letter written by Nihat Zeybekci and invite them to apply.

Especially the companies which did not get any support in the past, will be delivered a special message from Nihat Zeybekci.

THE COMPLETED DOCUMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED TO THE COMPANIES www.kolaydestek.gov.tr is also put into service to make the companies understand the regulations and to abolish the problem of access to documents. Every support is explained by images in the web site. The completed documents are provided to the companies.

The companies only need to download the ready documents, apply to where the web site directs, and get the support payments.

Highlighting that Exporters and Ministry of Economy is a family, Zeybekci recorded: “We are working

really hard to increase our exports with you. We provide many different supports to help you export. We are covering 50% of your expenses at many items.

However, the number of companies benefiting from our supports are far below our expectations. My friends have met with many companies and listened their worries.

As a colleague of you, who started to export in 1990s and spend many years devoted to export, I wanted to underline that there is not one company that apply to our supports with the required documents and could not get the support. From now on, we are taking yet another turn to a system that is easy, new and understandable for all companies to access the supports. We prepared ‘kolaydestek.gov.tr’ for you.

Thus, you do not need to think where to get required documents or where to apply.

On our new web site, we explained step by step what we support, how to apply by examples and the tricks you need to know. The contact information of our experts who may help you for every support is in our web site too.”

E-SIGNATURE ERA FOR APPLICATION

www.kolaydestek.gov. tr is put into service to make the companies understand the regulations and to abolish the problem of access to documents.

Beginning from 1st April, applications for export supports will be taken by electronic media via companies’ registered electronic mail (KEP) addresses with e-signature on them. From that date paperwork applications will not be accepted.

Ministry of Economy aims to accelerate application processes, increasing the quality of service at government supports and provide efficiency in implementation with the web site.

The Turkish Perspective

TECHNOLOGY

Turkcell Technology Summit:

THE GREATEST TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT

5G technology was discussed at the Technology Summit organized by Turkcell, with the attendance of more than 2500 business partners.

BY RAMAZAN GÜZYURDU

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HE SUMMIT INCLUDED

major global and Turkish actors of the communication and telecommunication industry. The opening speeches of the summit were given by Kaan Terzioglu (Turkcell CEO), Gediz Sezgin (Turkcell Chief Network Officer ), Galip Zerey (Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications), Taha Urey (Member of the Radio & Television Supervisory Board), Dr. Chaesub Lee (Director of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecommunication

Standards Office) and Axel Clauberg (Board Chairman of Telecom Infra Project and Technology Innovation Vice President of Deutsche Telekom AG). At the summit, Turkey was recognized as having the best infrastructure for transition to 5G thanks to its well-organized 4.5G infrastructure.

Faruk Özlü, Minister of Science Industry and Technology pointed to the fact that Industry 4.0 and Smart Society 5.0 encompassed all life, saying that the technology that once was a science fiction issue has

“While speaking to technology, we know that we are talking about the most important fact of our day.”

become the constant reality of our day at the Turkcell Technology Summit 2018.

Underlining that concepts such as essence, artificial intelligence, internet of objects, large data, smart technologies, and cyber security are not concepts of other worlds, Özlü noted: “These are today’s concepts.

Now the rules are written with these concepts. While speaking to technology, we know that we are talking about the most important fact of our day. Concepts such as cloud computing, large data, new industrial

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Briefing

‘WE OFFER THE BEST SPEEDS SUPPORTED BY DEVICES’

property applications, algorithms, encodings, smart factories, robots, sensors and three-dimensional printers, which are linked to digital technologies, are concepts that we should focus on now.

So, we have put technological transformation as the government and ministry at the center of all our politics. Science center, technology base, advanced industrial countries in setting the goals we set off from the real Turkey. We have combined our goal of being a future industrial country with our goal of becoming a technology base. This is one of the summit’s emphasis on ‘Turkey is doing.’ We want a strong voice to cry out. We believe that Turkey is strong enough to handle anything. We will not give up, Turkey will try with all our strength to do it.”

‘5G IS THE BASIS OF THE INDUSTRY 4.0 TRANSFORMATION’ Turkcell CEO Kaan Terzioglu says that 5G is not just a communication technology and noted: “5G should be considered as the basis of the digitalization of automotive, agriculture and health industries as well as MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

5G should be considered as the basis of the digitalization of automotive, agriculture and health industries as well as Industry 4.0 transformation.

“We think that early adoption of locallydeveloped 5G services will trigger a boost not only in technology but also in national economy.”

Industry 4.0 transformation.

Therefore, it is important that actors from all industries participate in 5G development efforts. Through long-term collaborations, we think that early adoption of locallydeveloped 5G services will trigger a boost not only in technology but also in national economy. Turkcell’s strategy in building the 4.5G network included the facilitation of transition to 5G. Our current network is a highend network offering the best speed and quality of mobile services. There are 7 operators in the world which can offer a speed exceeding 1Gbps and Turkcell is one of them.”

Gediz Sezgin, host of the summit and Turkcell’s Chief Network Officer (CNO), told that Turkcell is a leading global operator with many innovations in 5G and continued: “With 5G, we will offer 10 times the current speed. We will also ensure low levels of communication delays.

The delays will be minimum 20 times lower than today.

Operations which require instant decision-making in case of emergencies will be possible. Devices connected to the network will be used efficiently. 5G network will allow connection of 1 million devices per square kilometer.

5G will change all industries from education to health and transportation. Ways of doing business will change. Last year, we performed the first and fastest 5G tests in Turkey. We achieved record speeds with approximately 71 Gbps. As of today, we can say that we are using 5G. Because we reach the best speed supported by today’s devices. During the tests in Mardin last week, we achieved 1.05 Gbps. This speed will increase as terminals which support better speeds are available. We are now waiting for better terminals to be launched.”

‘FIBER INFRASTRUCTURE IS IMPORTANT FOR 5G’ Galip Zerey, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, said that the commercial use of 5G is expected in 2020 and Turkey will be one of the first countries to use 5G technology with the international standards currently specified.

Zerey mentioned that they are in collaboration with the operators to develop Turkey’s 5G infrastructure and stressed on the importance of the fiber infrastructure for 5G.

Briefing

AVIATION

Turkish Aviation Academy Hosts Top Aviation Training Conference The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Global Training Partner Conference brought together aviation professionals from all the over world in İstanbul.

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URKISH AVIATION ACADEMY hosted this

year’s ‘IATA Global Training Partner Conference (GTPC) on April 16-18 in Istanbul.

Turkish Aviation Academy, initially founded to meet the training needs of Turkish Airlines personnel and has become the most preferred training center choice for many companies both regionally and internationally in the course of time, continues its sectoral training activities for more than 30 years with its expert teaching staff and high-quality education approach.

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The Academy, which has been recognized as one of the leading training centers of global civil aviation with its successful performance, hosted this year’s GTPC, held under the theme of “Navigating Together through Disruption in Learning”.

“REGION’S PROMINENT LEARNING AND INNOVATION CENTER” “IATA Global Training Partner Conference, that we sponsored this year, has an important place in global aviation agenda. As Turkish

PHOTOGRAPH BYLOREM IPSUM

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The Turkish Perspective

Airlines, that steadily keeps its rise in global aviation, we are so pleased to host such a significant event in our hub, Istanbul, located on an unmatched geographical position. We believe that this conference, hosted by Turkish Aviation Academy, which is actively supported

by Turkish Airlines with the aim of contributing to the development of both our brand’s and the industry’s qualified work force, will provide a significant added value to Turkish Civil Aviation, while strengthening Academy’s place among the prominent learning and innovation centers in its region.” said M. İlker Aycı, Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines, in his opening speech during the conference.

“The aviation industry thrives on motivated, highly trained staff.

IATA is proud of its role coordinating the training of more than 100,000 aviation professionals a year worldwide. We thank Turkish Airlines for their support for this year’s Global Training Partners Conference. The commitment shown by Turkish Airlines to the success of this event shows once again the importance they attach to ensuring their employees maximize their potential.” said Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President, Europe.

PHOTOGRAPH BYLOREM IPSUM

LEADING IATA PARTNER: TURKISH AVIATION ACADEMY

International Air Transport Association (IATA) Training awarded its 2018 Premier Circle winners as well as its Regional Top-performing Training Partners within the scope of this event that constitutes a stage for

the international panel discussions on aviation and sectoral trainings with the participation of more than 200 representatives from 60 countries. More than 450 IATA global training partners are evaluated on various criteria, such as the number of students trained, the quality of training, exam pass rates, etc. The excellence

Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee M. İlker Aycı addressed 200 representatives from 60 countries in his opening speech.

of these training partners contributes significantly to the development of the next generation of professionals.

Having delivered more than 50 IATA training programs to thousands of participants in last two years, ‘Turkish Aviation Academy’ is one of the top regional training partners worldwide and has been granted the title of ‘IATA Premier Circle Member’ for the third consecutive time by keeping its momentum in 2018. During the conference, Turkish Aviation Academy was also presented with an award for this achievement.

Turkish Airlines, founded in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, currently has 326 aircraft, including passenger and cargo planes, and flies to 302 destinations in 121 countries. Last year it carried 68.6 million passengers with a 79.1 percent seat occupancy rate.

Turkish Aviation Academy has been granted the title of ‘IATA Premier Circle Member’ for the third consecutive time.

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Briefing

INVESTMENT

CISCO COMMISSIONS INNOVATION CENTER ISTANBUL AT İTÜ ARI TEKNOKENT US tech giant Cisco has inaugurated Innovation Center Istanbul – the company’s 10th innovation hub globally – in İTÜ Arı Teknokent, a technology park affiliated with Istanbul Technical University, one of the world’s oldest technical universities.

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ocated on a 4,500square-foot area, the center will serve as part of a network of Cisco Innovation Centers worldwide.

Innovation Center Istanbul is set to tackle the most pressing challenges with innovative and high-tech solutions, while taking into account Turkey’s priorities. The center will act as a platform of collaboration, bringing government organizations, customers, and partners together with startups, accelerators, universities, MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

research communities, and industry collaborators.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Cisco Turkey General Manager Cenk Kıvılcım said, “We believe in Turkey’s young population, creative brain power, and entrepreneurial potential. Our center will bring innovative and enterprising minds together to create ground-breaking solutions for the future. We aim to support Turkey’s PPP and logistics, transportation, and manufacturing investments,

while also looking to codevelop applications such as paperless warehousing, hyperlocation, and virtual wearables.

This facility will enrich our ecosystem, making it an even more attractive environment for startups and businesses.”

During his keynote speech at the ceremony, ISPAT President Arda Ermut added, “R&D is a longterm process and might be one of the first areas to be abandoned during tough times. Yet, for every Lira

invested in Turkey’s R&D, one can expect twice the amount returned in terms of incentives. The companies are incentivized by the government in numerous ways, including support for the wages of R&D staff.

This is an area that the Turkish government places utmost importance on. R&D spending in Turkey has more than doubled over the past decade, yet we still see ample room for further innovative investments.”

The Turkish Perspective

SWISS DEGELATION OF JOURNALISTS GET FIRST-HAND INSIGHT INTO TURKEY’S INVESTMENT CLIMATE A

s part of its global efforts to showcase Turkey’s business climate and to reinforce global investor perceptions, ISPAT continued its country-specific initiative by recently hosting a delegation of Swiss journalists from Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Luzerner Zeitung, 20 Minuten, and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) in Turkey. ISPAT wanted the delegation to see first-hand dynamism of the Turkish economy in different parts of the country, particularly in Turkey’s Istanbul and Bursa provinces.

The first day of the program began with a focus on startups and entrepreneurship in Turkey.

The Swiss delegation came together with StartersHub Chairwoman Ebru Dorman at their first stop in Istanbul, and then met with İTÜ Arı Teknokent CEO Kenan Çolpan at their second stop. As they were briefed by Çolpan, the delegation was impressed by the huge demand international companies show in Turkey, as well as the numerous examples of university-entrepreneurship cooperation cases in both the incubation and growth phases of companies operating in İTÜ Arı Teknokent.

The first day ended with ISPAT Coordinator Necmettin Kaymaz’s comprehensive presentation on Turkey’s investment climate based on the country’s macroeconomic indicators and inborn advantages. A Q&A session

Swiss delegation of journalists saw first-hand dynamism of the Turkish economy in different parts of the country, particularly in Istanbul and Bursa provinces.

followed shortly thereafter.

On the second day of the program, the delegation had the chance to exchange views with Swiss Consul General to Istanbul Nathalie Marti at a working breakfast that was also attended by officials from Swiss Business Hub Turkey and the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Turkey. After the breakfast the delegation headed to Bursa – one of the most industrialized metropolitan

centers in Turkey – to visit Swiss technical component manufacturer Angst+Pfister’s facilities based in Hasanağa.

During dialogues with the delegation, Angst+Pfister CEO Eray Ulugül took the opportunity to present the company’s projects both completed and in the pipeline, that have been facilitated by the investment incentives extended by Tubitak and the Turkish Ministry of

Economy. Ulugül made a point to draw attention to the significance the Turkish government attaches to R&D operations. While addressing the questions from the delegation at the on-site facility tour, Ulugül stressed Angst+Pfister’s full confidence in Turkey.

The dinner with Bursa Governor İzettin Küçük marked the last stop of the Bursa program. The governor talked about some of the goals for value-added production in Bursa’s soon-to-be established technology development zone Teknosab.

The final stage of the program ended with a meeting with EBRD Turkey Deputy Heads Hande Islak and Oksana Pak.

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Briefing

TURKEY UNVEILS SUPER INCENTIVES FOR HIGH-IMPACT INVESTMENTS TO BOOST INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION T

urkey recently introduced one of the most competitive investment incentive packages in emerging markets in a move to foster economic growth by stimulating industrial production and boosting exports.

Aimed at high-tech investments in the petrochemicals, energy, metals, healthcare, manufacturing, and agricultural industries, the comprehensive package of incentive certificates covers 23 projects that have a combined value of USD 33 billion. 19 companies received project-based certificates that were granted in person by President Erdoğan during a ceremony held in the Presidential Complex in Ankara.

The introduction of these incentives is set to further empower Turkey’s position MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

against emerging markets such as Mexico, India, and Indonesia. The incentive instruments cover a broad range that includes land allocation, various tax refunds/exemptions/ reductions, insurance premium support, and utility support. It is expected that these incentivized projects will help to reduce Turkey’s current account deficit

by USD 19 billion, while boosting output in hightech and medium-high tech products that are import dependent, such as electric batteries, drugeluting stents, energy systems, and hybrid engines.

As per the program, Assan, BMC, CFS, Dow Aksa, SASA, Most Makine, Metcap Energy, Oyak Renault and Vestel will engage in medium-high

Turkey recently introduced one of the most competitive investment incentive packages.

tech investments, while Alvimedica, Atayurt, Ekore, and TAI will undertake high-tech investments.

Vestel will make the largest investment in high and medium-high-tech with a project worth TRY 28.4 billion for electric vehicle energy storage systems and is expected to contribute the lion’s share to the reduction of the current account deficit to the tune of USD 4.6 billion annually. Oyak Renault’s hybrid engine production project is another hightech investment that will make a substantial annual contribution of USD 2.3 billion to reduction of the current account deficit.

Nearly 30,000 people will be offered direct employment, while indirect employment is expected to hit upwards of 110,000 with the initiative.

The Turkish Perspective

TURKEY INTRODUCES AMENDMENT LAWS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT

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CULTIVATING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TURKISH AND GULF M&A FIRMS

he Turkish government continues its efforts to move up in the ease of doing business indexes in the world. As a supplementary step to the previous reforms and incentive policies, Law no. 7099 on the “Amendments to Certain Laws for Improvement of the Investment Environment” was published in the Official Gazette on March 10, 2018.

The 35-article reform package, which aims to improve the investment environment in Turkey, focuses on reducing the number of transactions required to set up a company; facilitating bureaucratic procedures such as building permits and title deed transactions in the real estate sector; reducing several costs regarding foreign trade transactions and thus easing trade in Turkey; reducing the procedures to obtain infrastructure permits in telecom services; and easing the access of SMEs to finance.

A key feature of the package is the reduction of transactions required to set up a company in Turkey. Trade Registry Offices will become “one-stop-shops” for company establishment, and investors will be able to establish a company at a single institution and without the need for an intermediary.

In the real estate sector, a new online platform will be established to link transactions in various institutions, such as the land registry office, the tax office, and the Social Security Institution (SSI), which in turn will reduce the need to carry out procedures across multiple municipal offices.

The set of amendments to the legislation has been welcomed by entrepreneurs. The new law not only lessens red tape, but it also brings about a considerable reduction in expenses incurred, thus emerging as a source of motivation for the whole business community.

MAJOR AREAS OF REFORMS

A

n ISPAT delegation together with Turkish M&A consultancy companies visited the UAE to foster longterm relations between Turkish and Gulf M&A consultancy firms.

The ISPAT delegation, together with the Turkish M&A companies 3Seas Capital Partners, Ata Yatırım, Globalturk Capital, Pragma, and Total Finans, visited several firms that specialize in M&A transactions in the Gulf region.

The meetings allowed all sides the opportunity to exchange information about available business opportunities. Since cross-border M&A transactions account for more than half of foreign direct investments, cultivating such relationships is seen as vital to boosting transactions.

The delegation finalized its two-day roadshow by hosting a dinner with Turkey’s Ambassador to the UAE, Can Dizdar, on February 26.

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Cover / Fellowship Turkey on the of the Move Twenty

Turkey

on the

Move

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The Turkish Turkish Perspective Perspective The

Turkey has long been a country shaken by chronic economic and financial crises (1959, 1969, the 1970s, 1994, 2000-2001), but it has risen, in the last decade, to rank 17th among global economic powers.

BY MUSTAFA YİĞİT

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Cover / Fellowship Turkey on the of the Move Twenty

A

s a result of the restructuring of the banks in the 2000s; the conversion of many provinces (including Adıyaman, Denizli, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Konya, and Mersin) into industrial zones; the dynamism of a young population buying on credit; and the ability of the country to supply, through its manufactured products.

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

and consumer confidence of the coup attempt in July 2016, and an annual decline in tourism revenues of 36 per cent. This put pressure on the Turkish lira while simultaneously restricting the growth of local credit as a result of the drop in interest rates.

FASTEST GROWING INDUSTRY SECTORS IN 2012-2016 AND THEIR SHARE IN GLOBAL PRODUCTION Growth rate value added in real US$

Share of value added in global total (RHS)

8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1%

Agriculture, forestry & Fisheries

Food, beverage & Tobacco

Textiles, leather & Clothing

Other business services

Real estate activities

Coke & Refined Petroleum Products

Pharmaceuticals

Pesticides & Other agrochemicals

Soaps, detergents etc.

Electric Fittings

Motor vehicles & Parts

Metal products n.e.c

Rubber & Plastics

Paints, varnishes etc.

Information & Communications

Transport & Storage

Financial services

Basic Metals

0% Non-metallic minerals

Turkey has long been a country shaken by chronic economic and financial crises (1959, 1969, the 1970s, 1994, 20002001), but it has risen, in the last decade, to rank 17th among global economic powers, as a result of the restructuring of the banks in the 2000s; the conversion of many provinces (including Adıyaman, Denizli, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Konya, and Mersin) into industrial zones; the dynamism of a young population buying on credit; and the ability of the country to supply, through its manufactured products.

Having reached 100 percent for many decades, inflation dropped in the 2000s and stood at 8.9 percent in 2010 and increased to 10.5 percent in 2011.

According to an OECD report, Turkey showed great resilience in the face of the global monetary and financial crisis.

Public-sector expenditures represent 14.7 percent of the GDP, while the revenues of the central government represent 22.5 percent of GDP. Most of the public debt, which is 48.8 percent of the GDP, is domestic (36.4 percent). While there is a great debate among economists and politicians on the actual level of savings (estimated by experts to be between 10 and 22 percent of the GDP), the transition to a consumer society was more pronounce.

In its 2016 annual report, the World Bank pointed to declining growth in Turkey, down from 6.1 per cent in 2015 to 2.1 per cent in 2016. This was due in part to the impact on business

Construction

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Source: Oxford Economics

The Turkish Turkish Perspective Perspective The

The Turkish government’s focus is on stimulating production activities for local consumption, import substitution (intermediate goods) and regional exports.

Turkish industry employs 19.9 percent of the labour force; its major industries are steel/metallurgy, textile and clothing, petroleum products, food, and automotive. Although the IstanbulKocaeli/İzmit basin, the Çukurova plain (with Adana as its regional capital), and the Izmir region are still considered the three traditional industrial areas, many other regions, from Kayseri to Gaziantep, and from Adıyaman to Denizli, have emerged in the last twenty years as centres of industrial production.

Rapid urbanization during the last decades and regional developments from 1980 to 1990 (e.g., the Iraq-Iran War and the collapse of the Soviet Union) enabled the construction sector in Turkey to develop externally and become important on the international stage.

Ankara, at the centre of Turkey’s highway and railway networks, demonstrates how the construction sector has also benefited greatly from infrastructure development and constructed large cities. The construction sector, which employs 6.33 percent of the labour force, has also benefited from the construction of airport facilities in Turkey.

Turkey’s largely free-market economy is driven by its industry and, increasingly, service sectors, although its traditional agriculture sector still accounts for about 25% of employment. The automotive, petrochemical, and electronics industries have risen in importance and surpassed the traditional textiles and clothing sectors within Turkey’s export mix.

After Turkey experienced a severe financial crisis in 2001, Ankara adopted

financial and fiscal reforms as part of an IMF program. The reforms strengthened the country’s economic fundamentals and ushered in an era of strong growth averaging more than 6% annually until 2008. An aggressive privatization program also reduced state involvement in basic industry, banking, transport, power generation, and communication.

Global economic conditions and tighter fiscal policy caused GDP to contract in 2009, but Turkey’s well-regulated financial markets and banking system helped the country weather the global financial crisis, and GDP growth rebounded to around 9% in 2010 and 2011, as exports and investment recovered following the crisis.

PERCENTAGE OF NUMBER OF ENTERPRISE, EMPLOYMENT AND TURNOVER BY SECTORS, 2015 45

%

40

35.1

35

28.8

30

Number of enterprises Employment Turnover

41.7

38.8

36.8

22.6

25 20 15

41.7

12.8

10

6.7

5

15.7

11.8 7.5

0

Industry

Construction

Trade

Service

41

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Cover / Fellowship Turkey on the of the Move Twenty

Turkey has long depended on the import of manufactured products, and its agricultural exports have failed to counterbalance this dependence. Since the economic restructuring of 19801990, Turkey has encouraged the export of industrial products and developed expertise in the construction field, first in the Arab world in the 1980s and then in the former Soviet Union in 1990s. Turkey is the sixth-largest economy and the seventh-largest trading partner in Europe, on which it depends heavily for imports and exports. Today, even though it has lost some of its influence, the European Union remains the main trading partner of Turkey, with which it entered a customs union in 1995. According to recent estimates, Turkish exports to the European Union decreased from 48.4 percent in 2011 to 41 percent in 2012, and its imports from the European Union decreased from 38.4 percent to 36.9 percent.

The Turkish government’s focus is on stimulating production activities for local consumption, import substitution (intermediate goods) and regional exports. This should help to increase local employment and reduce the deficit in the trade balance and current account. According to the government’s industrial policy (Turkish industrial strategy document 2011-2014), Turkey is targeted to become the production base of Eurasia in medium and hightech products. Target sectors are manufacturing of motor vehicles, machinery, medical tools, sensitive and optical tools, air and space vehicles, electronics and pharmacy. More high added-value production is often linked to the creation of jobs requiring well-educated employees. This should trigger a return of young Turkish students studying abroad to help steer their country in the high added-value production sectors.

According to the ranking of the International Institute of Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland World Competitiveness Index, Turkey’s competitiveness improved the most out of 59 countries in the period 2002-2012, rising by 241%. This certainly contributed to the strong growth in certain sectors of industry. That Turkey scored the best is due to a major improvement in the efficiency of companies and a high growth in productivity.

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Instruments used by the government to achieve these goals are: • Privatisation • Liberalisation • Incentives for research activities • Incentives to establish in less developed areas • Incentives for establishing new production substituting imports and generating new export revenues • Incentives for large-scale investments focused on improving technology and R&D capacity and providing a competitive advantage in the international arena

Service Sector Drives GDP Growth

Optimism about the growth potential may be reduced due to the slowdown of GDP growth last year to close to 3%, while the euro zone was still in recession (-0.5%). Turkey is well on track to resume its long-term growth path (5% per annum) while the euro zone may show a maximum growth of 1-2%. Last year’s easing in monetary policy should feed through into higher domestic demand, while the gradual improvement of the global economy should help exporters.

Business and consumer expectations about the long-term prospects of the economy remain upbeat, underpinned by the large

PERCENTAGE OF TURNOVER BY SECTIONS IN SERVICE SECTOR, 2015

Transportation and storage Administrative and support service activities Accommodation and food service activities Information and communication Professional, scientific and technical activities Other

domestic market, a rising number of middle class consumers, strong trade links with rapidly developing regions, robust labour supply growth, expanding access to credit and a stable macro-economic policy. This assures Turkey will move up in the rankings of largest economies in Europe (number five by 2030, currently number seven). Which sectors will be the main contributors to future GDP growth? About 50% of GDP growth is generated by the commercial services sectors. This is similar to the Dutch economy. Transportation, distribution and communication, as well as financial services, facilitate the performance of the supply chain in other sectors of industry.

In addition to the commercial services sectors, Turkey will increase its market share in global production, especially of capital goods, consumer durable goods and the construction industry. Foreign companies already play an important role in the automotive industry, the consumer electronics and the financial sector. Most of the FDI inflows from 2007 to 2012 are invested in the financial sector (38%), electricity, gas steam and air conditioning supply (15%), in the food & beverages industry (7%) and in wholesale and retail trade (6%)

Rapidly Developing Local Market

The large population of 75 million puts Turkey in the top 20 in the world. After Russia and Germany, Turkey has the third largest population in the region.

The population is expected to continue growing over the next four decades, achieving its maximum size of 93.5 million in 2050, after which it will gently decline. Although the growing population is still young, it is ageing.

Within the next 20 years, Turks older than 65 will make up more than 10% of the total population. This is mainly due to decreasing birth rates and improvements in health care. Growth in prosperity in the country and the shift towards middle-aged consumers increases private consumption and causes a shift in the consumption pattern. The wealthiest among the age groups, middle-aged adults, rose to 17.7 million. There is a huge and fastgrowing demand for housing, transport, health goods, medical services, alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

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Cover / Fellowship Turkey on the of the Move Twenty

Fast Recovery Turkey has long been a major tourism destination for tourists from diverse regions of the world. Touristic activities offered by Turkey are astonishingly various, increasing the country’s potential to a higher level than that of an ordinary country.

BY MUSTAFA YİĞİT

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

The Turkish Turkish Perspective Perspective The

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Cover / Fellowship Turkey on the of the Move Twenty

I

n the early seventies Turkey was an insider’s tip for hippies, backpackers, globetrotters and a few enthusiasts of history and culture. But with the beginning of the eighties Turkey witnessed a steady boom in tourism and double-digit growth rates almost every year. This boom started with the decision of Turgut Özal, the former prime minister and president of the Republic of Turkey, a visionary politician who understood that tourism is a very important branch of world economy. His government declared several suitable places at the southern coast of Turkey as tourism development regions and allowed the building of new hotels on plots of lands rented for 49 years and also endowed many companies with necessary credits in order to start them into business.

Beginning with this decision Turkey has witnessed at least one new hotel built every month, and the generousness of these new Turkish hotels along with the generosity of Turkey concerning food, culture and beautiful landscapes enthused millions of Europeans within a few years. Turkey all of a sudden emerged as the most preferred holiday destination of many tourists, travelers with cultural interests or just looking for recreation, but also for many people looking out for luxury and lifestyle.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the nineties and the subsequent opening of this huge mass of land for voyages abroad Turkey all of the sudden became the very first holiday destination for the first Russian tourists, and later on one of the best-loved, maybe even the holiday destination par excellence for most Russian citizens. Thus the number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey steadily year by year increased, and with this new and very big group of visitors emerged facilities catering to their tastes: luxury hotels with pretentious rooms, very big wellness and spa departments, and also Turkish nightlife in the region of Antalya all of a sudden evolved into a major entertainment industry with international stars and starlets. Along with this the Turkish economy in general

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

INCREASING THE COUNTRY’S POTENTIAL TO A HIGHER LEVEL GDP: DIRECT CONTRIBUTION The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was USD2,229.8bn (3.0% of total GDP) in 2015, and is forecast to rise by 3.3% in 2016, and to rise by 4.2% pa, from 2016-2026, to USD3,469.1bn (3.4% of total GDP) in 2026.

GDP: TOTAL CONTRIBUTION The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was USD7,170.3bn (9.8% of GDP) in 2015, and is forecast to rise by 3.5% in 2016, and to rise by 4.0% pa to USD10,986.5bn (10.8% of GDP) in 2026.

EMPLOYMENT: DIRECT CONTRIBUTION In 2015 Travel & Tourism directly supported 107,833,000 jobs (3.6% of total employment). This is expected to rise by 1.9% in 2016 and rise by 2.1% pa to 135,884,000 jobs (4.0% of total employment) in 2026.

EMPLOYMENT: TOTAL CONTRIBUTION In 2015, the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, was 9.5% of total employment (283,578,000 jobs).

This is expected to rise by 2.2% in 2016 to 289,756,000 jobs and rise by 2.5% pa to 370,204,000 jobs in 2026 (11.0% of total).

VISITOR EXPORTS Visitor exports generated USD1,308.9bn (6.1% of total exports) in 2015. This is forecast to grow by 3.0% in 2016, and grow by 4.3% pa, from 2016-2026, to USD2,056.0bn in 2026 (6.2% of total).

INVESTMENT Travel & Tourism investment in 2015 was USD774.6bn, or 4.3% of total investment. It should rise by 4.7% in 2016, and rise by 4.5% pa over the next ten years to USD1,254.2bn in 2026 (4.7% of total).

witnessed wonderful growth rates, thus supporting an increase in congresses, meetings and political summits held in Turkey, which on their part awoke the interest of national and also international investors, leading to new sports and maritime sports facilities built along with the new hotels. For instance the number of marinas in Turkey increased considerably, and some of them received world-wide recognition.

TOURISM’S IMPACT ON ECONOMY

Turkey’s tourism sector made a good start to 2018, with nearly 1.5 million foreigners visiting the country in the first month of the year.

Data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry released on Feb. 28 showed that the number of foreign arrivals saw a 39 percent year-on-year increase in January.

Iran became the top tourist market for Turkey in January, with 154,296 people from Iran visiting Turkey in the month.

Iranians therefore took a nearly 11 percent of share in total foreign arrivals in the mentioned period.

Georgia and Bulgaria followed Iran with 150,849 arrivals and 119,296 arrivals respectively. Germany followed, with 86,875 arrivals. The number of German arrivals to Turkey saw a 10.3 percent year-on-year increase in January and Germans took a 5.94 percent share in overall arrivals.

Some 68,344 Russians visited Turkey in January with a 70.3 percent year-onyear increase, making Russia the fifth top tourism market for Turkey with a 4.68 percent share in total arrivals.

Rise in Hotel Occupancy Rates Meanwhile, hotel occupancy rates and room prices also saw a significant increase, STR Global data showed on Feb. 28.

The Hotels Association of Turkey (TÜROB) said in a statement to announce the latest STR Global data that Turkey’s hotel occupancy rates rose to 60.6 percent in January, with a 28.6 percent year-on-year increase. This was the highest increase in all European destinations, according to the data.

The Turkish Turkish Perspective Perspective The

Future Expectations

The number of foreign visitors to Turkey is expected to see a record-high in 2018,

WORLD RANKING (OUT OF 185 COUNTRIES) Relative importance of Travel & Tourism’s total contribution to GDP

14

68

ABSOLUTE Size in 2016

RELATIVE SIZE Contribution to GDP in 2016

171

91

GROWTH 2017 forecast

LONG-TERM GROWTH Forecast 2017-2027

TOTAL CONTRIBUTION OF TRAVEL& TOURISM TO GDP 2016 TRYbn

Direct

Indirect

2027

450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Induced

BREAKDOWN OF TRAVEL& TOURISM’S TOTAL CONTRIBUTION TO GDP AND EMPLOYMENT 2016 2016 TRYbn 54

88 495 DIRECT 1,017

685

+ INDIRECT + INDUCED

= Total contribution of Travel & Tourism

('000)

124 Employment

Average room prices also rose to 60.1 euros in January, with a 10.4 percent year-on-year increase.

Similar good news is also coming for Germany and Russia, Turkey’s top markets Due to a series of bomb attacks, a diplomatic crisis with Russia and a failed coup attempt, Turkey’s tourism sector took a big hit in 2016. The negative impact of these developments also continued in the first months of 2017.

Nearly 1 million foreigners visited Turkey in January last year, a 9.8 percent year-on-year decrease, despite an 81.5 percent year-on-year increase in Russian arrivals with the normalization in bilateral ties between Ankara and Moscow.

The overall number of foreign arrivals in Turkey rose to 32.4 million for the whole of 2017 with a 27.8 percent yearon-year increase, mainly thanks to the surge in Russian visitors.

More than 3 million foreigners visited Turkey in the first two months of 2018, with the tourism sector seeing a significant recovery in the number of arrivals from Europe, official data has shown. Data from the Tourism Ministry showed on March 30 that this figure represented a 35 percent year-onyear increase.More than 1.02 million Europeans visited Turkey in the first two months of the year, a 25.6 percent year-on-year increase, the data showed.

Iran topped the list of visitors by country, with over 350,000 arrivals and an 11.7 percent share in total arrivals. Iran was followed by Georgia with over 307,000 arrivals and a 10.3 percent share, and Bulgaria with over 231,374 arrivals and a 7.74 percent share.Turkey received some 197,000 tourists from Germany and 134,000 visitors from Russia.The number of foreign arrivals into Turkey surpassed 1.5 million in February, a nearly 32 percent year-on-year increase.Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş previously said the country hopes to attract at least 38 million tourists in 2018.

according to experts and politicians.

While the country hosted 36.8 million foreigners in 2014 and 36.3 million in 2015, the figure decreased sharply to 25.3 million in 2016 but rose again to 32.4 million last year, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).“Turkey will see 40 million foreign visitors and its income will climb over $30 billion by the end of 2018,” Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) President Firuz Bağlıkaya told Anadolu Agency on April 14.Bağlıkaya said the number of foreign visitors, which increased by 34.91 percent year-onyear in the first two months, indicates the target of 40 million tourists would be achieved this year.Turkey welcomed three million foreign visitors in the first two months of 2018 during its winter period, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry.Reservation demand for 2018 summer period was also positive, he said.“Demands from Germany and Russia, which are Turkey’s main tourism market, are very positive. Germany’s demands have increased by 60 percent and Russia by 30 percent,” said the TÜRSAB president.

Turkey also expects the number of visitors from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to rise in 2018, Bağlıkaya said. Turkey’s southern province Antalya and Aegean region are the leading tourist destinations in the country, he added.

Previously, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Hüseyin Yayman said Turkey had entered a period of stagnation in the tourism sector after the Fethüllahist Terrorist Organization’s (FETÖ) coup attempt in 2016, but the sector improved in 2017. “Turkey’s 2018 target is 40 million foreign tourists,” Yayman said.

Etem Hakan Duran, president of the Professional Hotel Managers Association of Turkey, also said reservations had increased in 2018 compared with last year.“Turkey’s Europe tourism market will rise 15-20 percent and the country will host 38 million guests in this year,” said Duran.,.Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş had said Turkey’s 2023 targets for the tourism sector are 50 million tourists and $50 billion in revenue.

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In Depth / Bridging The Energy Gap

BRIDGIN

The groundbreaking ceremony of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), will be held in the southern province of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast on April 2.

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

NG

The Turkish Turkish Perspective Perspective The

THE ENERGY GAP Turkey sealed

its determination to enter the league of countries that capitalize on nuclear power last week when the country witnessed the beginning of the construction of its first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, a Mediterranean district in Mersin province, in a ceremony attended

by President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ&#x;an and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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In Depth / Bridging The Energy Gap

N

uclear energy is an energy which occurs by splitting (fission) big atoms (Uranium, plutonium) or by merging (fusion) small atoms (like hydrogen). The discovery of Uranium in 1879 and the disintegration of atomic under controls in 1934 has been the bases of the foundation of today’s nuclear technology. As with many other technological advances, the studies that first began in the field of military defense later began to offer commercial productivity. Many countries, especially the USA and Russia, have made intensive studies to utilize nuclear energy, and as a result of these studies, systems have been developed to convert the heat energy, which is the result of atomic reaction, into electrical energy. These systems, in other words, nuclear power plants, ensure that nuclear energy is obtained in a safe, controlled and sustainable way.

The spread of nuclear power plants began with the oil crisis of the early 1970s.

Countries that do not have oil and other hydrocarbon resources have inclined to nuclear power plants to reduce their dependence on these resources and ensure security of energy supply. Nuclear power plants continue to be established all over the world, despite a slowdown due to accidents Three Mile Island (TMI) in the US on 1979 and Chernobyl incident in Soviet Russia on 1986 (today in the Ukrainian borders).

The concept of safety culture came to fore in the light of the lessons learned from these accidents. There have been both administrative and technical improvements to establish and operate safer nuclear power plants all over the world. On the one hand, the establishment and operation of nuclear inspecting institutions began to be monitored and controlled; On the other hand, new techniques, technology, standardization and quality systems have been developed for the production of safer equipment and systems.

Nowadays, nuclear power plants have become an electricity source

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

preferred by countries due to their unique characteristics. The need for a reliable, affordable, sustainable and accessible energy source with increased environmental awareness places more emphasis on nuclear power plants than other alternatives.

NUCLEAR POWER DEVELOPMENTS IN TURKEY Several nuclear power projects have been proposed: in 1970 a feasibility study concerned a 300 MWe plant; in 1973 the electricity authority decided to build a 80 MWe demonstration plant but didn’t; in 1976 the Akkuyu site on the eastern Mediterranean coast near the port of Mersin was licensed for a nuclear plant; and in 1980 an attempt to build several plants failed due to a lack of government financial guarantee.

In 1993 a nuclear plant was included in the country’s investment program following a request for preliminary proposals in 1992, but revised tender specifications were not released until December 1996. Bids for a 2000 MWe plant at Akkuyu were received from Westinghouse + Mitsubishi, AECL, and

NUCLEAR POWER IS RISING

Nuclear energy is clean, safe and secure for the all world. Many countries begin to follow this trend and want to use more nuclear energy.

Russia 22 England 2 Czechia 1

Switzerland 3

China 143

Ukraine 11

Bulgaria 1

Kazakhistan 3 S. Korea 6

Turkey 8

USA 21

Iran 8 Israel 1

Mexico 3

S. Arabia 16

Vietnam 6 Thailand 5

India 46 Brazil 4

Argentina 2

Chile 4

S. Africa 8

Japan 3

UAE 10

The Turkish Perspective

Framatome + Siemens. Following the final bid deadline in October 1997, the government delayed its decision no less than eight times between June 1998 and April 2000, when plans were abandoned due to economic circumstances.

Early in 2006 the province of the port city of Sinop on the Black Sea was chosen to host a commercial nuclear power plant.

This has the advantage of cooling water temperatures about 5 degrees C below those at Akkuyu, allowing about 1% greater power output from any thermal unit. A 100 MWe demonstration plant was to be built there first, then 5000 MWe of further plants to come into service from 2012. Some kind of public-private partnership was envisaged for construction and operation.

In August 2006 the government said it planned to have three nuclear power plants total 4500 MWe operating by 2012-15. Discussions had been under

PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN STATED THAT THEY ARE WITNESSING A HISTORIC MOMENT IN TERMS OF TURKEY’S DEVELOPMENT AND THE ENERGY COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND RUSSIA. way with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd regarding two 750 MWe CANDU units as an initial investment. These and the PWR type were apparently preferred. The first units of some 5000 MWe total were to be built at Akkuyu, since the site was already licensed, but licensing was also proceeding for Sinop.

In November 2007 a new law concerning Construction and Operation of Nuclear Power Plants and Energy Sale (of their electricity) was passed by parliament and subsequently approved by the President. The bill provided for the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) to set the criteria for building and operating the plants. The Turkish Electricity Trade & Contract Corporation (TETAS) would then buy all the power under 15-year contracts. The bill also provided for public institutions to build the plants if other offers are not satisfactory. It also addressed waste management and decommissioning, providing for a National Radioactive Waste Account (URAH) and a Decommissioning Account (ICH) which generators would pay into progressively at USD 0.15 c/ kWh. The OECD Paris and Brussels Conventions on third party accident liability would apply.

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In Depth / Bridging The Energy Gap

Immediately subsequent to this law, Criteria for Investors who will Construct and Operate Nuclear Power Plants, and regulations were published.

In May 2008 a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the USA entered into force, in June 2010 a nuclear cooperation agreement with South Korea was signed, and in April 2012 two such agreements with China were signed.

In November 2013 the IAEA conducted an Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) in Turkey to assess the country’s progress in preparing for the new nuclear power program. It reported positively but recommended completing a national policy on nuclear energy, strengthening the regulatory body, and developing a national plan for human resource development.

AKKUYU NUCLEAR POWER PLANT The groundbreaking ceremony of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), will be held in the southern province of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast on April 3.

The Akkuyu NPP will be built by Russian State Nuclear Energy Agency Rosatom and will compose of four units each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts (MW). The plant, with a total investment cost of about $20bn, will have a working life of 8,000 hours a year.

In the first phase of construction, two units are planned with a capacity of 2,400MW. According to preliminary evaluations, 35-40 percent of the plant’s

NUCLEAR POWER IN TURKEY

Currently, there are 447 nuclear reactors in operation in some 30 countries around the world.

construction could be undertaken by Turkish companies potentially providing added value to the economy by about $6-$8B. The Akkuyu NPP will produce 35 billion kW of electricity at full capacity, which will cover more than 10 percent of Turkey’s electricity needs, or equivalent to the electricity demand of Istanbul.

The plant has an operational date set for the first reactor by 2023 while the plant is expected to be up and running at full capacity by 2025.

During the peak period of the plant’s construction, about 10,000 people will be employed, while approximately 3,500 people will be provided with job opportunities in the operation phase.

With Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, the other planned nuclear power plants, Igneada and Sinop, are also the target for the year of 2023. İĞNEADA

SİNOP

İSTANBUL

AKKUYU Source: World Nuclear Association

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

Moreover, 248 Turkish students were educated in Russia to work at the plant.

Thirty-five of these students graduated last month after 6.5 years of education.

An intergovernmental agreement for Akkuyu was signed between Russia and Turkey in 2010.

A HISTORIC MOMENT Making a speech at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant at the Presidential Complex, President Erdoğan stated that they are witnessing a historic moment in terms of Turkey’s development and the energy cooperation between Turkey and Russia. President Erdoğan expressed his happiness to be breaking ground for the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant together with Russian President Putin.

Pointing to the distance Turkey and the Russian Federation has covered over the past 15 years in bilateral relations as an important indication for the future, President Erdoğan stated that the 7th meeting of the Turkey-Russia High Level Cooperation Council (HLCC) symbolizes the level the bilateral relations between the two countries have currently reached.

“We uninterruptedly continue with our investments in every branch of the energy industry in line with our objective of boosting our energy security.

Nuclear energy holds an important place in our plans for a future in which our country will have sound and sustainable energy. Currently, 31 countries obtain a significant portion of their electricity

The Turkish Perspective

from 450 active nuclear power plants all around the world. And there are 55 nuclear power plants under construction in 16 countries at present. This number will rise to 56 with the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, for which we have broken ground. With the launch of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant’s first reactor in 2023, Turkey will have joined the group of countries using nuclear energy. We will thus have crowned the centennial of our Republic with a historic work in the field of energy,” President Erdoğan said.

INCREASING AROUND THE WORLD In 1954, history was made when nuclear fission technology was approved for commercial purposes and the first nuclear power plant started operation in the Russian city of Obninsk. For the first time, it was possible to meet the demand of an increasingly energy-thirsty world – at a reasonable price, too. The new energy proved to be an extremely reliable and stable form of electricity. Since nuclear power plants are only shut down for refueling every two years or so, they provide an around-the-clock “baseload” supply of power to the people.

In nuclear fission, uranium atoms are split apart into lighter elements. Uranium is a radioactive metal that is extracted from mines, mainly in Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. After the uranium splitting process, the used fuel elements are still radioactive and have to be stored in nuclear waste repositories or spent fuel pools. These sites are often underground

PHOTO OF EXPERIMENTAL BREEDER REACTOR-I (EBR-I) LIGHTING FOUR BULBS TO DEMONSTRATE THE FIRST ELECTRICITY GENERATION FROM NUCLEAR ENERGY Source: www.anl.gov (Accessed May 27, 2009)

and require thick metal or concrete walls to shield the public from radiation. In the past, several accidents at nuclear power plants - including Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima -have shown just how dangerous radioactivity is, once it is released into the environment.

Currently, there are 447 nuclear reactors in operation in some 30 countries around the world. One of the largest plants is situated in France, where over 76 percent of total electricity generation was derived from nuclear sources in 2017.

In 2011, the alliance between General

NUMBER OF OPERABLE NUCLEAR REACTORS

This statistic shows the number of operable nuclear reactors as January 1st, by country. Operable nuclear reactors are those connected to the grid.

99

USA

58

FRANCE

42

JAPAN

38

CHINA

35

RUSSIA

24 22

S.KOREA INDIA

19

CANADA UKRAINE UK

15 15

Electric and Hitachi was ranked as the third largest maker of nuclear reactors, behind France’s Areva and Russia-based Rosatom. The nuclear power plant market was sized at around 30 billion US dollars in 2011 and is expected to exceed 50 billion US dollars by 2030. In 2040, global nuclear power capacity is projected to reach 602 gigawatts.

Of the 31 countries in which nuclear power plants operate, only France, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belgium, and Hungary use them as the source for a majority of the country’s electricity supply. Other countries have significant amounts of nuclear power generation capacity. According to the World Nuclear Association, a nuclear power advocacy group, as of 2012 over 45 countries were giving “serious consideration” to introducing a nuclear power capability, with Belarus, Iran, Jordan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam at the forefront. China, India and South Korea are pursuing ambitious expansions of their nuclear power capacities, with China aiming to increase capacity to at least 80 GWe by 2020, 200 GWe by 2030 and 400 GWe by 2050.

South Korea plans to expand its nuclear capacity from 20.7 GWe in 2012 to 27.3 GWe in 2020 and to 43 GWe by 2030.

India aims to have 14.6 GWe nuclear power generation capacity by 2020 and 63 GWe by 2032 and to have 25% of all electricity supplied by nuclear power by 2050.

DYNAMISM AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Nuclear power plants should be not regarded only as electricity generation facilities. The nuclear power plant project, which consists of approximately 550 thousand components and equipment, will provide added value to our country’s industry together with the dynamism and employment opportunities it provides to other sectors.

In addition to this, studies continue at the focus of human resource development.

Every year, as many as 600 students are sent to Russia for nuclear energy education. By this year, 259 Turkish students were sent to Russia for nuclear training. In particular, Turkish students will be employed in different fields from engineering to managerial level in the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant Project after approx. 6,5 years of training, including internship in the plants in Russia.

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In Depth / Bridging The Energy Gap

GROUNDBREAKING STEP FOR TURKEY

Turkey has formally launched construction of its first nuclear power plant with the pouring of concrete for the sub-base foundation of the nuclear island. Striving to diversify energy supply channels as much as possible, Turkey plans to build three nuclear power plants between 2023 and 2030, which are expected to provide 10 percent of domestic electricity consumption.

4,800 20

MW

CAPACITY OF AKKUYU NPP

$ BILLION

TOTAL COST OF THE PROJECT

10,000 People TO BE EMPLOYED IN

CONSTRUCTION OF PLANT

NEARLY

35

BILLION KWH ELECTRICITY TO BE PRODUCED AT FULL CAPACITY

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Akkuyu NPP’s total capacity to be 4,800MW’s 4 units to produce 1,200MW’s each

Turkish firms to add $6B to $8B value to economy First unit to start producing electricity in 2023, the rest will be activated every other year

10

%

TURKEY’S ELECTRICITY DEMAND TO BE SATISFIED BY Akkuyu NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

The Turkish Perspective

World Is Changing

World electricity production in the world is changing rapidly in the world and nuclear energy use is continuing to rise in 2017.

COAL 39,3%

NUCLEAR

10,6%

SOLAR, WIND, GEOTHERMAL & TIDAL

4,9%

GAS

22,9%

OIL

4,1%

HYDRO

16,0%

OTHER

2,2%

Source: IEA Electricity Information 2017

Nuclear Power: Bridging the Energy Gap

11

By August 2017, 447 nuclear reactors with a total installed capacity of 392.521 MW have been operating in 31 countries and 59 nuclear reactors are being built in 16 countries. Following countries supply their electricity demand with these percents:

%

WORLD’S ELECTRICITY TO BE SUPPLIED BY NUCLEAR REACTORS

FRANCE 73%

SWEDEN

40%

SOUTH KOREA

30%

UKRAINE

52%

EUROPEAN UNION

30%

BELGIUM

51%

USA

20%

Source: Republic of Turkey Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources

55

The Turkish Perspective Content: Yataş Group: New Technologies in Home Decoration P57 Petlas:Developing with Cooperation P60 Editor: Ramazan Güzyurdu

FURNITURE, AUTOMOTIVE...

Yataş Group is exporting products predominantly to Europe, the Balkans, Middle East markets.

FURNITURE

YATAŞ GROUP: NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN HOME DECORATION

Yataş Group is positioning itself to establish a commanding presence in the international market with incentives granted for advertisement investments, rent and decoration investments.

SERAP KAYA

57

58

Briefing Brands / Yataş Group

As a 41-year-old family owned company, Yataş was established in 1976 as Süntaş A.Ş. in Kayseri as the first foam factory of Anatolia.

THREE YEARS AFTER ITS CONCEPTION, the company expanded its facilities investments to foam mattresses as well as foam, spring mattresses in 1981, home textiles in 1987 and furniture in 1993 and modular furniture in 2001. Therefore, enriching the solutions for changing customer expectations and needs in home decoration and reinforced the trust and loyalty to the brand with its innovative and technological products and its quality. Being the first company to start retail system in Turkey in 1988, then became the first company to go public in its sector in 1996. Initiating a long term change/transformation period in 2010, the company revised its product groups and distribution channels in order to be closer to the consumer and answer to their needs; the company also renewed its slogan, logo, perspective and way of making business. Since it was hindering the perception of a strong furniture perception in the eyes of the consumers, Yataş established Enza Home brand in 2010 and positioned Enza Home as a brand that is more than furniture, a world of decoration.

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

FACING THE WORLD WITH ENZA HOME Yatas, aspired to carry the furniture store franchise concept to the world as it was uncommon, first opened a showroom in Iran, then England. Starting a journey of becoming a brand by combining science, engineering, authentic design, innovation and comfort, the company renewed its showroom concepts and designs as its corporate identity. With its rich product range with an accessible design approach, continue to help the customers both in Turkey and on earth to transform their living spaces in align with trends.

YATAŞ MAKES THE FIRSTS Focussing on restructuring its brands with its experience ranging from manufacturing to retail, with its knowhow and its marketing oriented perspective, Yataş is highlighted as the first company that utilized different applications in Turkey. As the first manufacturer and seller of cast foam technology in Turkey, Yataş collaborated with Leggett & Platt, the most advanced spring technologies expert of the world and initiated the ‘Sleep Revolution’ with its manufactured mattresses consisting new spring technologies. As the unique brand that utilizes 100% Woolmark® wool in

its mattresses, Yataş Bedding also manufactures its Visco Therapy mattresses and pillows with Closed Cell Viscoelastic technology developed by Nasa, “Memory Foam Technology”.

The creator of “Sleep Set” that is widely known in home textile sector of today, Yatas is the first brand that offered the market the first mattress with springs that do not deform when folded, storage, storage ruffles and headboard products.

THE OPERATIONS AND SUCCESS IN TURKEY Establishing the first franchise system in the sector and in turn provided the foundation for franchise stores in order to provide the most convenient way to reach the consumers, establish non-negotiable pricing system, franchise system and regional franchise system to reach the far corners of Turkey, Yataş renovated the retail business with Enza Home and Yataş Bedding and initiated the largest transformation of its history.

Yataş also selected as the “Super Brand” of Turkey by Superbrand, an independent brand review company operating in 48 countries

The Turkish Perspective

795

MILLION NET WORTH

20% EXPORTING

OF REVENUE

Yataş Group is included in 2017 Turquality Incentive Program with its brands that are pioneers in their respective sectors, Enza Home and Yataş Bedding. around the world. Establishing an approximate of 4 times the growth in the last 3 years, Yataş reached the 332nd place by moving up 38 places in Turkey 500 Largest Industrial Establishment (ISO 500) in 2007 that is announced publicly by Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. In 2016 Yatas Group established a record of 54% growth as opposed to 17 percent growth average in the industry, then grew 58% in 2017 and increased its net worth to 795 Million

TRY and achieved another record growth. Therefore, the Group completed its 5 years of transformation process between 2012 and 2017 with a great story of success. Yataş Group is also included in 2017 Turquality Incentive Program with its brands that are pioneers in their respective sectors, Enza Home and Yataş Bedding. Being among the 78 companies that are selected for Turquality Support Program, Yataş Group is positioning itself to establish a commanding

presence in the international market with incentives granted for advertisement investments, rent and decoration investments. The brand is also positioned to become a “World wide brand” as its second 5-year theme. For this purpose, an investment worth 40 Million TRY is made in factories in Kayseri and Ankara. Reaching a staggering 252.000 m2 area with its additional facilities, the goal is to manufacture a mattress in merely 52 seconds. In order to be the industrial leader, increase the manufacturing and product cost efficiency in the new facilities, gain a foothold in new markets and to reach a broader target audience, Yataş purchased and acquired Divan Home and Divan Yatak brands in March 2018.

Offering the state of the art mattresses that positively contributing to human health to the consumers, Yataş is developing products that offer added value to the lives of consumers with its varied models in different segments in the furniture market and its high quality service approach.

Employing or contributing the lives of a huge team of 5 to 6 thousand people within its

ecosystem, Yataş Group is also monitoring the developments abroad and continue to invest in R&D to progress and create a difference. Working towards innovation and development of new products with its R&D unit with more than 80 experts, the Group is also highlighted with allocating 10% of its revenue to R&D, advertisement and development. The Group is targeting a 90 Million TRY investment for 2018 is planning to manufacture hospital beds for large mounted city hospitals. The Group purchased 18 new machineries that includes 5 robotic machineries and will increase its mattress manufacturing capacity by 15 percent.

EXPORT Exporting 20% of its 2017 revenue, Yataş Group is exporting products predominantly to Europe, the Balkans, Middle East markets to a total of 49 countries around the world with Yataş Bedding and Enza Home brands. There are 55 concept showrooms in 33 countries with Enza Home and Yataş Bedding names. The Group is targeting to increase this number to 95-100 in 2018 and become a global establishment that never sleeps, and with the incentives granted via Turquality, is preparing to have a more active presence in the entire world markets including Far East markets.

Yataş Group, with its ever evolving technology and quality, on its way to become a global company, has showrooms in Germany, Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, BosniaHerzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Morocco, Palestine, South Africa, Georgia, Holland, Iraq, Iran, England, Italy, Montenegro, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Congo, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Hungary, Macedonia, Egypt, Pakistan, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Oman.

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60

Briefing Brands / Petlas

DEVELOPING WITH COOPERATION AUTOMOTIVE

PETLAS PLANS TO OPEN NEW COORDINATION OFFICES IN NORTH AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST AND RUSSIA REGIONS TO ADDRESS RAPIDLY CUSTOMER NEEDS. PROBABLY TO SUPPORT SOME COORDINATION OFFICES, NEW WAREHOUSES ARE BEING CONSIDERED TO OPEN.

N

o one could have estimated in 1976 that a tire factory, which was built as a state enterprise in the middle of the Anatolian plateau, would be among Europe’s biggest tire manufacturers, even a global player in tire industry.

Petlas Tire Industry and Trade Corp. began producing tires in the early 1980s to compensate Turkey’s needs of defense industry and in 1997 Petlas was privatized.

Later in 2005, Petlas was purchased by AKO Group.

Petlas factory is located in Kırşehir-Turkey. The factory established on 2,000,000 m2 and 380,000 m2 covered area. Petlas produces nearly 13.000.000 units tires per year and employs 3.400 people are working in various departments of Petlas. According to statistics Petlas is listed among the top

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

100 biggest companies in Turkey. Looking through the tire range of Petlas, you can find more than a thousand two hundred different tires sizes. It is easy to say that Petlas produces tires for all sort of vehicles such as PCR (passenger car radial), LTR (light truck radial), LTB (light truck bias), 4x4-SUV, UHP (ultra-high performance), TBR (truck bus radial), TBB (truck bus bias), agricultural radial & bias, trailer radial & bias, forestry, implement, flotation, IND-OTR radial & bias, forklift, military aircraft and military purpose tires.

As a Turkish pioneer tire manufacturer first winter A/T SUV tires were produced by Petlas in 2012 with its own knowhow and Turkey’s first steel earth mover tire released from production in 2016. Also

Petlas Tire Corp. exports tires from East to the West at all continents has operations more than 110 countries according to 2017 numbers.

Petlas has become the first tire manufacturer of Run Flat tires in Turkey. These are just some evidences of Petlas leadership and innovative approach in Turkey’s tire business. Petlas is continuing its researchdevelopment to increase production capacity, strong marketing orientations and market share day by day while protecting the nature. Petlas has taken took considerable steps to reduce CO2 emission and restrain toxic chemical substances to produce environmentally friendly and fuel efficient tires.

Petlas Tire Corp. follows world standard quality levels and some of the certificates of the company are: • ISO 9001:2008 Quality And Management System Assurance Certificate (German RWTÜV Institutio)

The Turkish Perspective

Petlas has become the first tire manufacturer of Run Flat tires in Turkey.

• ISO 16949 Certificate for automotive OE supplies.

• AQAP-110 Industrial Quality Assurance Certificate (Under Secretariat of Defense Industry, 1999) • E Certificates, Noise Certificates • INMETRO certificate • DOT (US Department of Transportation Conformity Certificate) • ISO 14001, ISO27001, GCO, SONCAP, SASO, TURQUALITY Petlas Tire Corp. exports tires from East to the West at all continents has operations more than 110 countries according to 2017 numbers.

Being a market leader in agricultural segment in the North Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe, Petlas wants to increase its passenger car and TBR tire sales figures in the following years. Also Petlas aims to increase number of distributors in its existing tire markets. Beyond these, China and Africa regions are emerging markets for Petlas and Petlas is planning to incorporate into these markets in the very near future.

In this regard, investments were made about passenger car tire production capacity in during last year. As a result of that investment Petlas’s factory became capable of producing nearly 9.000.000 unit passenger car, light truck and 4x4 car tires in 2018. It is obvious that, this investment give a positive momentum in export sales

Petlas has started to build a fully automatic warehouse in 2017.

With that warehouse export transportation process will be faster and more effective.

figures in 2018. By the way, link to passenger car tires, Petlas continues to expand its Run Flat (RFT) range day by day with its own know-how technology.

R&D department is also intensively works to expand pattern and size range in TBR. In 2018, probably will be a large scaled investment for TBR production capacity.

Within the scope of all production capacity plans, Petlas has started to build a fully automatic warehouse in 2017. With that warehouse export transportation process will be faster and more effective. Also that system makes it easy to track a tire from production to delivery.

To realize these future goals as mentioned above, Petlas considers opening new coordination offices in some countries. Recently Petlas has two offices.

Petlas Tire USA, US based subsidiary office of Petlas Tire Corp, is giving service to its customers both in the USA and in the North America. And South America coordination office located in Santiago, Chile is aiming to dominate Petlas’s sales operations in South American countries.

Relating to expanding sales operations, Petlas plans to open new coordination offices in North Africa, Middle East and Russia regions to address rapidly customer needs. Probably to support some coordination offices, new warehouses are being considered to open.

With its wide tire range, premium quality, fast delivery and competitive pricing, Petlas is ready to continue its intensive working agenda to do the best in the upcoming years for its customers and for the environment protection.

To realize main and future goals Petlas Tire Corp. will continue to work to do best.

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62

Agenda

FAIRS, EXHIBITIONS, SUMMITS AND MEETINGS IN THE NEXT MONTH

MAY

09-12

AYSAF 2018 CNR EXPO CENTER, YEŞILKÖY-İSTANBUL AYSAF (Istanbul 59th International Exhibition for Footwear Materials, Components Leather and Technologies), the largest trade platform of the footwear sub-industry sector with a market volume of 5 billion USD in Turkey, is going to be held on May 09 – 12, 2018 at CNR EXPO Center, in Istanbul, Turkey. AYSAF stands as the unique meeting platform for the local and global supplier companies, and professional visitors.

3 - 4 MAY 2018

FORUM ISTANBUL 2023 SWISSOTEL THE BOSPHORUS, İSTANBUL

The 17 annual conference of the Forum Istanbul 2023 conferences has been scheduled on May 3-4, 2018 at Swissotel the Bosphorus, Istanbul. Forum’s mission is to direct the Turkish society and specifically, the academic, business and bureaucratic circles to consider Turkey’s situation at the present and in the long run in order to generate solutions to the country’s issues on national and international platforms... th

YAPI – TURKEYBUILD 2018

INTERNATIONAL ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT FAIR 8

ISTANBUL CNR EXPO CENTER

TUYAP FAIR AND CONGRESS CENTER

02 - 04 MAY

The ICCI 2018 Fair and Conference will present a general outlook on the global energy sector, worldwide and in Turkey, and accordingly, issues such as Energy and Geopolitical Balances, Energy Dialogue EU - Turkey, Energy Strategy of Turkey in Today’s Conditions, Energy Policies Legislations and Practices, as well as technical matters such like Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technologies, Developments in the Renewable Energy Market, Conventional Energy Technologies,sailboats will be meeting its fans.

MAY 2018 ISSUE 58

11- 12 MAY

Yapı - TurkeyBuild Istanbul brings together representatives of the building industry from Turkey, the Balkans, Northern Africa, the Middle East, Russia and the CIS. The events are opportunities to present and discover the latest product innovations and serve as business development platforms. The exhibition is an opportunity to find new business and partnership opportunities alongside major industry players at the region’s leading exhibition around the world.

ISTANBUL FLIGHT TRAINING EXHIBITION MAY

11-12

WOW CONVENTION CENTER–İSTANBUL

IFTE is a unique and privileged event which provides the opportunity of directly appealing the target pilot candidates. IFTE gathered 103 participants from 20 different countries through the support of DGCA of TURKEY. As IFTE, we are proud to present participants as follows: FTO and TRTO companies, spare part suppliers, MRO companies, aircraft manufacturers, simulator developers, aviation academies...

63

120 GW

Figures

The total installed power capacity.

Turkey: The Most

FASCINATING PERFORMANCE

Attractive Investment Destinations In The World

The total investments required to meet Turkey’s expected energy demand in 2023 is estimated to be around $ 110 billion, more than double the total amount invested over the last decade.

TURKEY’S VISION FOR 2023, THE CENTENNIAL FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC, ENVISAGES TARGETS FOR THE ENERGY SECTOR IN TURKEY THAT INCLUDE:

20,000MW

These sectors are continuing to increase their export compared to the same month of the last year and showed a great performance.

SECTOR (Million $)

March March Change 2017 ($) 2018 ($) (%)

340

523

53,7

Olive and Olive Oil

32

47

48,9

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable

154

208

34,7

Jewellery

MILESTONE COUNTRIES OF EXPORT

installed capacity based on wind power

60,717KM Length of transmission lines

The following countries continue to secure their positions in the export compared to the same month of the last year.

(Billion $) COUNTRIES

1 - 31 MARCH 2018

GERMANY

1.47 1.03 0.95 0.71 0.69 0.68 0.63 0.48 0.39 0.36

UNITED KINGDOM

5,000

MORE THAN

11 billion m

3

30 %

Targeted share of renewables

Expected natural gas storage capacity

STUDENTS FROM ABROAD PREFER TO STUDY IN TURKEY Number of international students in Turkey has increased by 5 times from 25,000 in 2012 to 125,000 at present.

Data: Anadolu Agency

MW

1,000 MW

SPAIN UNITED STATES

Solar energy providing

by Installing power plants

Geothermal energy providing

by Installing power plants

ITALY

FRANCE IRAQ NETHERLANDS ISRAEL BELGIUM

Data: ISPAT

16,000

105

students

universites

in Turkey as part of the “Turkey Scholarship” Program from 160 countries

in 55 cities are currently hosting the students

160

125,000

16,00 students are coming from the all around the world

Foreign students are currently pursuing their studies in Turkey

countries

Data: TİM

students

1,425 students

Syrian students received scholarships to study in Turkey in 2016.

64 Figures

GERMANY

10,26

BELGIUM

SHARE OF TOP 20 COUNTRIES IN TOTAL EXPORT (%)

2,55

NETHERLANDS

3,19

FRANCE

Turkish exports shares to most prominent markets in first three months of 2018.

4,66

UK

6,49 USA

4,82

SPAIN

4,64 MOROCCO

1,24

POLAND

2,17

ROMANIA

2,36

RUSSIA

2,06

ITALY

6,27 BULGARIA

1,68

CHINA

1,75

IRAN

GREECE

1,89

1,29

ISRAEL

2,50

EGYPT

1,66 SAUDI ARABIA

1,59

Data: TÄ°M

MAY 2018 ISSUE 57

IRAQ

4,38

E N J OY THE F LI G H T Georgios Printezis FLIGHT TIME 2017-18: 13 min 54 sec