By Mike Davey of the EBRD
Turkey has been looking for ways to modernise and grow for decades, but this is particularly true today. And now it is noticing its biggest under-utilised resource: women.
Many images of Turkey include women in headscarves. It is probably the Turks? least favourite image: many Turks are concerned that it does not properly reflect the fact that Turkey is a modern country. Some will remind you of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk?s words: ?Humankind is made up of men and women; if one half of a whole is chained to earth, how can the other half soar??
Legally and officially, women have full equality. And they are capable of great achievements. In ?modern?, metropolitan Turkey one meets highly-successful women from prominent business families, playing key roles in their family companies. Guler Sabanci is head of the multi-billion dollar business, Sabanci Holding. The president of the Turkish Industry and Business Association?s Board of Directors is Umit Boyner. Many daughters and nieces from business-owning families go and get their MBAs and return to work for the family company.
But both anecdotally and statistically speaking, Turkey does not score well in terms of gender inclusion. Attitudes and traditions dictate that a son, rather than a daughter, starts or inherits a business. Access to finance for women entrepreneurs and their small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is insufficient.
The current AKP government has a gender agenda; one of its aims is to increase female participation in the labour market by providing more opportunities in smaller municipalities. But the private sector, particularly banks, needs to do more to help women entrepreneurs.
SMEs feed most Turkish families, accounting for three-quarters of all employment. Statistics show that about 40 per cent of Turkish SMEs are owned or co-owned by women (curiously far fewer have women in top management ? only 12 per cent). Women are strongly represented in the textiles, chemicals, retail and service industries. Yet only 15 or so per cent of female-owned micro, small and medium-sized enterprises get their financing thorough banks.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been operating in Turkey since 2009, and we see the need to address these issues. It was in Turkey that we launched the EBRD?s first credit line aimed specifically at women entrepreneurs (?60m through the local Garanti Bank, which was also the first private bank in Turkey to launch a women entrepreneurs? support package). This credit line is aimed at women outside the three biggest cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir (where access to finance is relatively stronger).
We are working on the second credit line for ?20 million with another local private bank, Yapi Kredi. We have also started to include a gender element in projects we finance directly; one of them, the privatisation of IDO ferries in Istanbul, came with the undertaking by the new owners, TAV, to raise the number of female employees ? which they have done. They are also planning a scheme for female interns from maritime schools, and we hope some of them will soon become ferry captains.
We wish not only to improve access to credit but also promote the issue of opportunities for women. If it becomes fashionable in Turkey, it will benefit the economy as a whole. At our Annual Meeting in Istanbul in May this year, we will hold a high-level debate on promoting the role of Turkish women in business.
Meanwhile one client in the western city of Bursa, who obtained a loan through the EBRD?s credit line with Garanti Bank, has just received another order. Handan Ilkoz?s small construction company, Izodem Construction Isolation, is sub-contracted to do some building work at the new football stadium where the city hopes to invite international teams in a few years? time.
She used the loan of 50,000 Turkish lira (about ?21,000) to pay salaries to her 30 employees, when her clients were late with payments. She says that for a woman such as herself, a seasoned small business owner in the male-dominated world of construction, the loan was helpful because it was affordable. But for young women who are just taking their first entrepreneurial steps, she adds, access to such finance means the difference between succeeding or failing.
Mike Davey is director for Turkey at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Related reading
Education reforms divide Turkey FT
Leading from the front FT
Women at the Top, FT Special
paterno newt gingrich joe pa joe pa joe paterno dead marist south carolina primary results
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.