© International Trade Centre, International Trade Forum
- Issue 4/2004
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Photo: ITC ITC diagnostic tools, which analyse firms'
export capacity, improve the quality of government-supported export
trainers. |
Turkey's export growth in recent years is an encouraging sign of
its economic potential. It is looking to small firms to sustain
this growth. To meet the needs of a multitude of new, mainly small
and medium-sized export firms, Turkey's Export Promotion Centre
came to ITC for help in revamping its services. Together, they have
developed a new approach to training trade advisers for small
firms, which is now being used in other countries.
Turkish exports hit an all-time high of US$ 46.9 billion in
2003, up 30% on the previous year. Between 2001 and 2003, the
number of exporters grew from almost 29,000 to 35,000. Most are
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which play an important
role in the Turkish economy, constituting 99.8% of all companies
and contributing 76.7% of total employment.
In 2001, the ink on the Turkish government's eighth Five-year
Development Plan (2001-05) had barely dried. It had endorsed the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Bologna
Charter on SME policies only a year earlier. Finally, with European
Union accession in the air and the Agreement on Textiles and
Clothing coming to an end in December 2004, representatives of the
Turkish Export Promotion Centre (IGEME) were concerned that the
country's SMEs were not realizing their full export
potential.
Export services in higher demand
With no increase in their 73 expert staff, IGEME saw it had to
reassess its efforts to meet clients' requirements. First, it
needed to be more systematic in how it delivered services to unlock
SMEs' potential and fulfil recent government commitments. Second,
it reappraised the ser-vices themselves. IGEME believed that
managers of small firms needed simple, straightforward and
affordable assistance - from people who understood local market
conditions.
IGEME was not looking for a quick export-fix but wanted to create a
shift in business
culture for firms to succeed in the changing trade environment.
Companies needed to think globally from day one. International
trade had to become part of their daily routine, not a preserve of
the business elite.
IGEME's Executive Director Beratiye Öncü and Director Sevim Yalçın
saw the storm clouds gathering on the horizon. They came to ITC
with a clear goal in mind: to identify innovative programmes and
services that could improve the international competitiveness of
Turkey's SMEs.
Ms Yalçın remembers: "I was so keen to get started. We began small
with the
Trade Secrets project, then the
International
Competitiveness Gauge. As our confidence grew we became more
ambitious."
Ramamurti Badrinath, Director of ITC's Division of Trade Support
Services, encouraged IGEME to take advantage of ITC tools that had
already been developed. "I knew at the time that we were going to
have a committed partner in IGEME," he says. "I was proven right.
Within months of our first contact they had taken ITC's Trade
Secrets publication and produced an adapted version in Turkish. As
of today, they have invested substantial financial and human
resources to put ITC tools to work."
Trade Secrets provided a formula for IGEME to research and
produce answers to the top 100 questions of new exporters in
Turkey. IGEME went on to put these questions and answers online.
The
International Competitiveness Gauge helped introduce
benchmarking techniques for the automotive components industry.
With a system in place to deal with basic inquiries and experience
in bringing higher value-added benchmarking and training techniques
to exporters, Turkey began to work with ITC to address more complex
export needs of its firms.
 | Small and medium-sized firms in Turkey account for 99.8% of
all enterprises and yet represent only 10%-20% of total exports.
Harnessing the international trade potential of SMEs is critical to
the country's trade performance. (Photo: ITC) |