Women's Business Councils Join Forces

Turkey's Exporters Assembly (TİM) Women's Council and the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) Women's Committee have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop bilateral relations. Through this agreement, the parties aim to develop partnership relations in their working areas and among their staff. The TİM Women's Council, established within TİM to increase the number of women represented in the business world and to facilitate the integration of women entrepreneurs into business life, has entered into collaboration with the MÜSİAD Women's Committee to develop bilateral relations. The collaboration protocol ceremony was attended by TİM Chairman İsmail Gülle, MÜSİAD Chairman Abdurrahman Kaan and members of both organizations. The collaboration protocol, which aims to develop partnership relations in common working areas and among staff members, was signed by TİM Women's Council Vice Chairman Melisa Tokgöz Mutlu and MÜSİAD Women's Committee Chairman Müge Öz.

TİM Chairman İsmail Gülle stated: "This protocol will strengthen the power of our women in the business world. Each member of our TİM Women's Council and MÜSİAD Women's Committee signs important projects in their companies; they contribute to the development of the Turkey brand and to value-added exports."

Drawing attention to the situation of women entrepreneurs in Turkey, Gülle continued: "According to 2020 data, the share of startups founded or partnered by women in Turkey is only 14%. The investment rate received by these startups is 43 million dollars, representing 30% of total investments. Among the top 10 investments, 3 women entrepreneurs from the TİM - TEB Enterprise House are also represented. While the proportion of venture capital firms with at least one woman partner in Turkey is 22%, this ratio is 35% in the United States. The figures clearly show that we need to increase the number of women entrepreneurs and all support we provide to entrepreneurs. In this respect, as TİM and MÜSİAD, which are among the most active and productive NGOs in our country, we are taking an important step. We are signing this protocol to ensure the development of our ability to act jointly in our working areas and among our staff, and to strengthen our mutual cooperation relations." Stating that through this protocol, the two organizations will support each other in domestic and international activities within the scope of cooperation projects, Gülle said: "The two organizations will make announcements to their members within the framework of international events, in market research, trade fairs and exhibitions, and commercial delegation organizations; they will encourage participation. Furthermore, on matters of training, seminars, joint European Union projects, commercial delegation visits and bilateral meetings, our TİM Women's Council and MÜSİAD Women's Committee will develop a meaningful cooperation culture." MÜSİAD Chairman Abdurrahman Kaan emphasized that TİM works to enable Turkish businesspeople conducting foreign trade to gain competitive advantages in foreign trade and strengthens solidarity in the business world by contributing to various projects to support exporters. Kaan stated: "Working with TİM to support our women entrepreneurs and exporters, we aim to enable them to play a more effective role in the business world. We believe that the agreement signed in this context will be an extremely beneficial step towards greater participation of women in production, trade and exports in Turkey; we wish that this cooperation will be beneficial for our women entrepreneurs, our business world and our country." Source: DHA