The President of the Turkish Business Confederation (TÜRKONFED), Süleyman Sönmez, said that four out of five businesses cannot access financing.
TÜRKONFED, which includes 31 federations and approximately 100,000 companies under its umbrella, closely monitors the Anatolian business world, which is struggling with various problems ranging from financing and collection to the informal economy.
Asked about the challenges faced by the Anatolian business world in the first 6 months, Sönmez gave the following information: “Within the scope of the 100th Anniversary Meetings we organized in the last two years, we reached 50 cities and 26 federations. We have seen that the situation of our business world in Anatolia is not very bright. According to the Access to Finance Survey we announced for the first quarter of the year, the problem of access to finance, which started during the pandemic, continues. Our business people have difficulty in finding working capital financing and new investment financing. 4 out of every 5 businesses state that they have problems accessing financing. 9 out of every 10 business people have problems in the process of obtaining loans from banks. Although the rate of those whose loan applications are fully approved has increased compared to last year, it is still 37 percent. Other problems communicated to our Confederation are listed as ‘tax evasion and informal economy’, ‘decrease in trust among businesses due to bankruptcy and payment problems’, ‘dependence on imports’, ‘exporters being in a difficult situation due to the increase in the real value of TL against the dollar’ and loss of competitiveness.”
“While the world is experiencing multiple crises ranging from the climate crisis to wars and economic stagnation, we have been in an election atmosphere and economy in our country for almost two years. For this reason, we could not overcome our basic problems such as ‘production costs and supply’, ‘high inflation and purchasing power’, ‘the impact of the war on export markets’ and ‘access to financing and exchange rate increase’,” Sönmez said.
Problems affecting the entire society
Pointing out that behind these problems, which affect not only the business world but also the welfare of the whole society, there are more challenging, more real problems, Sönmez said: “These are ‘productivity and value-added problems’, ‘informal economy and tax injustice’ and ‘lack of planning in line with 21st-century conditions’
