Decisions Taken at "Coronavirus Meeting"

A "Coronavirus Meeting" held today at the Presidential Palace under the Presidency of our President resulted in highly critical decisions for our country and exports. The inclusion of a measures proposal prepared with the participation of TİM and our exporters' associations in the measures package announced by the Presidential Economic Council has satisfied our exporters. The deferral of Social Security Premium payments for April, May and June by 6 months each, the postponement of companies' loan principal and interest payments to banks for a minimum of 3 months and the provision of additional financial support where necessary, stock financing support to exporters to maintain capacity utilization rates during the temporary slowdown in exports, an increase in the Credit Guarantee Fund limit from TRY 25 billion to TRY 50 billion, and minimum wage support included in the measures package will provide significant contribution to the Turkish economy. In this context, we view the measures package announced by our President as an important move that will ease Turkish exporters in the coming period. It is extraordinarily important that our state announces a support package in the face of the current economic developments. I believe the economic scale of the package will increase through multiplier effect. Therefore, I believe this support package of around TRY 100 billion will have an economic impact of around TRY 300 to 350 billion. Every support package has a multiplier effect, so it will have a 1 to 3 or 4 effect. As long as banks and financial institutions act carefully on liquidity matters.

This package will ensure that our country remains more alert and ready to face new conditions that will emerge as the world enters the process of recovering from this crisis.

As is known, our country has priority among countries that have taken all necessary measures by treating the Coronavirus threat, which has been described as a "global pandemic" from the outset, seriously. In this context, we extend our thanks to our President, our Ministries, our Scientific Board and our relevant institutions for their intensive efforts owing to the "transparent" and "rational" policies being pursued. We state at every opportunity that Turkey, as a "reliable harbour supplier," can assume a supplier role at regional and global scale in addressing supply problems arising from countries where the virus shows serious spread in international markets. In the coming period, we will continue our intensive work on the issue in line with our exporters' demands to prevent our exports from being affected by this negative global picture. As field personnel of exports, we are ready in this process to fulfil whatever our state expects from us.