More than 59.4 percent of Syrian businessmen in Turkey think their businesses initiatives in the country were a success, a joint survey by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) have said.
The comprehensive survey interviews some 400 companies. It revealed that the average number of people employed by a total of 9,978 Syrian-capitalized joint venture companies in Turkey was 7.3. Meanwhile, around 71.7 percent of all Syrian entrepreneurs in Turkey have said they do not want to return home after the war is over.
According to the study, geographic proximity and existing business networks were the most important reasons these Syrians entrepreneurs moved to Turkey.
Around 48.4 percent of them think the business environment in Turkey is better compared to other neighboring countries. A majority of Syrian companies operate in the micro-scale and services sectors, corresponding to 66 percent and 71 percent, respectively. A total of 75.4 percent of Syrian companies were already engaged in entrepreneurial activities before moving to Turkey.
The survey also found that Syrian companies were mostly export-oriented. Some 55.4 percent Syrian companies in Turkey are exporting while this rate is only 30.9 percent for Turkish companies.
The biggest challenge for Syrian companies is access to finance, with the hardest transactions being opening a business bank account (28 percent), transferring local currency (27.3 percent) and opening a personal bank account (19.7 percent).
Although there are no legal obstacles for Syrians to open a bank account in Turkey, regardless of whether they are business owners or not, they can face such problems due to individual bank decisions and the legal status of Syrians.
