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Is there any light under the tunnel? When it comes to entrepreneurship, Turkey is far from being a global star. We blame the education system, government policies or unfriendly business environment for not starting our own business. All these play important roles in encouraging entrepreneurs not to take action but we cannot change these factors all at once. We need to adopt to the entrepreneur friendly world by making small adjustments and increasing small business production nationwide.
Are innovation and creativity highly valued in your country?
Is it hard for people like you to start a business?
Are entrepreneurs highly valued in the society?
Can people with good ideas usually put them into practice?
These questions were asked to 24,000 people across 24 countries for a BBC survey in order to determine which countries are more entrepreneur-friendly.
Surprisingly, the most entrepreneur-friendly country, the easiest place to start a business appears to be Indonesia. Next best countries are the US, Canada, India and Australia with no surprise. According the survey results, China and the US have particularly high scores on innovation and creativity. 75% of survey takers in both countries state that their countries value innovation and creativity. As Turks, we are far behind in this category with only 24%.
When we look at the overall ranking, we see Turkey towards the end of the ranking with Colombia, Egypt, Italy and Russia, the least favorable places for entrepreneurs.
Although Turkey is willing to encourage entrepreneurship on national and international levels, the pace of these efforts is not comparable to countries that encourage entrepreneurship in many programs.
The recent GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) report findings conclude that there is improvement in the number of entrepreneurs in the past 4 years thanks to the government aids. The aids usually come in two forms: financial support and training. According to KOSGEB, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Organization, more and more people complete trainings on entrepreneurship and upon completing training they become eligible to receive funding as grant (4,000 to 27,000 TL) or credit (40,000 to 70,000 TL) with a solid business plan. Trainings are not only given at government institutions but also offered at universities. This demonstrates the growing interest in entrepreneurship among young adults.
Turkish Women on the rise as entrepreneurs
In the last few days, we have been reading news on women entrepreneurs’ success: The winner of ‘Turkey’s Women Entrepreneurs Competition’ has been selected Zeynep Rüstemoğlu from Ankara, owner of Forum Industries offering automatic fire detection and suppression systems. The competition was organized by Garanti Bank, Ekonomist and KAGIDER. (the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey)
According to Hurriyet Daily, a total of 5,600 female entrepreneurs from different regions of Turkey had applied to the competition this year whereas there were only 113 applicants 5 years ago.
Entrepreneurship encouraged to build new partnerships
Entrepreneurship is gaining importance in a global level. It is one of the areas that world leaders focus in order to strengthen international ties with regional leaders. Last month’s Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship 2010 held in Washington DC had the aim of expanding entrepreneurial opportunities between the US and the Muslim countries.
During the opening address of the summit, President Obama said: ‘We have come together today because of what we share – a belief that we’re all bound together by certain common aspirations: to live with dignity, to get an education, to live healthy lives, maybe start a business without having to pay a bribe to anyone, to speak freely and have a say in how we are governed, to live in peace and security, and to give our children a better future.’
Given all the security, political and social challenges we face, why a summit on entrepreneurship? Obama asked the audience. ‘The answer is simple. Entrepreneurship because you told us that this was an area where we can learn from each other, where America can share his experience as a society that empowers the inventor and the innovator; where men and women can take a chance on a dream, taking an idea that starts around a kitchen table or at a garage, turning it into a new business and even new industries that can change the world. Entrepreneurship because throughout the history, the market has been the most powerful force the world has ever known for creating opportunity and lifting people out of poverty.’
President Obama announced a series of new partnerships between the US and the Muslim states such as exchange programs that will bring business and social entrepreneurs together. US entrepreneurs will visit and learn from their Muslim counterparts and Muslim entrepreneurs will explore the entrepreneurial climate in the US. High tech leaders from Silicon Valley will share their expertise in venture capital, mentorship and technology incubators with emerging entrepreneurs in various locations including Turkey, Jordan Egypt, Lebanon and Malaysia.
President Obama concluded his speech by his hope of building strong that will serve to mutual interest of all participating nations. The next Entrepreneurship Summit that aims to further enhance cooperation and connectivity on entrepreneurship in a multinational level will be hosted in Turkey in 2011. I personally hope that this will encourage more Turkish entrepreneurs to start and expand their businesses.
Ela Erozan Gürsel writes a weekly column named “Değişim Yelpazesi ” on global business trends for Dünya Gazetesi on behalf of Datassist for almost two years. Her feature topics include: green energy; climate change; impacts of financial crisis on companies, sectors and regions; innovative technologies in sciences, human resources and management; social networks transforming business and politics; changing dynamics of marketing and branding.
She also writes articles for international magazines published in Singapore.
Prior to her writing career, she worked at Datassist as a Project Manager in a project that combines human resources and mobile communications with the aim to connect blue-collar workers and employers through mobile phones. Before engaging in this exciting project, she was in pharmaceutical sales working for a multinational company. She graduated from American University, Washington, DC, majoring in International Studies with a concentration on International Business and Europe. She worked in Washington D.C. as an Account Manager at a boutique telemarketing firm that specializes in fund raising and publication renewals. She speaks Turkish, English, French, and Spanish. She currently resides in Singapore with her husband.
