TOBB President Meets with the Bilkent Engineering Society
President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkey (TOBB) Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu, met with the members of the Bilkent University engineering society last week.
Hisarcıklıoğlu informed them about the TOBB's history and structure and emphasized that enrichment was solely linked to trading and economic activity and said "Oil and gas make rich the state, not the people. For people's richness, you need trading and production."
Noting that every year 800,000 youngsters enter employment markets, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, "Turkey must find jobs for these 800,000 people. This is a tough issue. This is only possible only through the private sector and entrepreneurship. Increased public employment will bring an additional burden on the people. To meet the cost of additional public employment either the taxes will be increased or loans will be taken from abroad."
Mentioning the significance of entrepreneurship, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that non-entrepreneur countries are doomed to collapse. Pointing out that one did not need money to become an entrepreneur, Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that we must increase the number of entrepreneurs for the richness of the people.
After stating that Turkey was number 27 economy in the world in the 1980s, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, "In those years Saudi Arabia and Greece were richer than Turkey. Our generation made this country to number 16 economy of the world. Exports increased from USD 3 billion at that time to USD 132 billion today, and 92 percent of them are industrial goods." Today, Turkey's economy is bigger than Greece and Saudi Arabia combined.
Hisarcıklıoğlu told the students that they must aim to place Turkey within Top 10 economies of the world by 2023, saying "Therefore you must work hard. Never quit working."