The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) and the American business association (AmCham Turkey) will provide local companies with mentorship services to enable those firms to have the chance to conduct e-trade businesses with the United States.
The "e-Commerce Mentoring Program" will benefit small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), TOBB said in a statement Tuesday.
The firms that will be selected among the applicants will be matched with mentors. Market analysis will be carried out with the companies, enabling them to conduct e-exports to the United States market.
According to the project, potential companies in priority sectors will be determined. Strategic planning, consultancy and business development support will be given to these companies so that they can mature their e-export processes.
Companies that aim to e-export to the U.S. in sectors such as furniture, textile, ready-made clothing and machinery sub-industries will have the opportunity to review their current cross-border e-commerce processes, increase their business volumes and accelerate their processes once mentoring applications have been approved.
The Turkish Trade Center established by TOBB in Chicago will also play an active role in expanding the presence of local firms in the U.S. market.
TOBB Chairperson Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, whose views were included in the official statement, said that they continue to provide active support to entrepreneurs for new trade opportunities.
Emphasizing that they want to increase Turkey's share in global foreign trade, Hisarcıklıoğlu said: “As TOBB, we are working to increase the participation of our SMEs, which are an indispensable element of economic development, in the global value chain and to improve our companies' access to markets.”
“We aim to bring our entrepreneurs to a higher league by enabling them to reach a larger audience directly and to benefit from the advantages of e-export,” he said.
Representing more than 110 U.S. companies with investments of more than $50 billion in Turkey, AmCham Turkey Chairperson Tankut Turnaoğlu stated that they hope to bring together SMEs aiming to enter the U.S. market with their members.
“As an association, one of our priorities is to enable Turkish companies to participate more in the global value chain. Thus, we are carrying out the 'e-Commerce Mentoring Program' in cooperation with TOBB and with the support of our member UPS,” Turnaoğlu said.
Burak Kılıç, General Manager of postage service UPS Turkey, for his part, said that the global e-export volume is expected to reach $2.4 trillion by 2025.
“The digital transformation we are experiencing in export and trade has accelerated with this expectation. Businesses in Turkey can also be involved in this transformation. This program will open new doors for participants in terms of e-export.”
