Turkey Should Change Its Image
‘To create respectability, one must create his own story,’ says Central Anatolian Machinery Exporters’ Union Chairman Adnan Dalgakıran.
Turkey’s respectability has improved compared to previous years but the country needs to change its international image to further improve, experts at the Turkey Respectability Summit agreed.
Two dozen keynote speakers from the business world and the media participated in the Turkey Respectability Summit held in Istanbul on Friday.
“To create respectability, one must create his own story,” Central Anatolian Machinery Exporters’ Union Chairman Adnan Dalgakıran said, adding it was a mistake to try to imitate the stories of those known as world giants.
Speaking at the summit, Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review Editor-In-Chief David Judson also said that respectability was not something one could build or create or buy.
Saying that respectability was only a consequence, Judson commented, “Turkey’s real problem is being misunderstood rather than not being understood.”
Judson also said that ratings the firms and companies depended on that of their countries, recalling the rule adopted by rating companies like Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poors, that prevents any firm being granted a higher rating individually than the overall credit rating of the country in which it is based. He also pointed out that although Fitch had reduced the credit rating of Libya due to civil unrest, it still had a higher rating than Turkey.
CNNTurk News Coordinator Yavuz Oğhan similarly said that respectability was an overall problem in Turkey. “The media’s credibility fell from 44 percent to 36 percent, even when ranking Turkey’s most credible institution in public polls – the Turkish Army has even lost its public credibility.”
United Brands’ Association Chairman and owner of ready wear brand Koton Yılmaz Yılmaz, on the other hand, said Turkey’s international respectability used to be terribly low in previous years but has shown a gradual change in the recent term.
Yılma said the overall retail turnover of the Turkish fashion industry grew at 13 percent in 2010 and their target was 20 percent growth in the next five years.
He also said he believed Turkey would be create global brands, rather than being only a producer-exporter.
Turkish Exporters’ Assembly Deputy Mustafa Çıkrıkçıoğlu similarly said that Turkish products had a brand awareness about them in the global markets, while when he first started his business life he had to buy even the nails from abroad.
Friday, February 25, 2011
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
