At the meeting, which was attended by Halkbank CEO Arslan, the jury members of the 2024 Halkbank Productive Women Competition, which was organized to encourage entrepreneurial women and support them in the implementation of their projects, were introduced.
Speaking here, Osman Arslan expressed his joy in organizing the third Productive Women Competition, which they organized for the first time in 2022, to support women who add value to the economy and life by taking their place in the business ecosystem.
Arslan stated that it is a bank that believes that the path to sustainable development is through a strong contribution to the business ecosystem and that mobilizes its intellectual capital as well as its financial resources in line with this ideal, stressing that companies that produce value can survive . and that the most important element of value creation is the enhancement of intellectual capital.
Stating that their goal is to support women’s entrepreneurship, which they consider essential for economic growth and sustainable employment, and to add added value to the country through women’s entrepreneurship, Arslan said: “We see the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship as one of the prerequisites for increasing social and economic well-being and they accept it as a strategic priority. A spark for their dreams.” “We wholeheartedly support women entrepreneurs who are in need and who are determined to pursue their ideas to produce knowledge from the past and transfer it to the future, and we are proud of our success.” he said.
“Our goal is to enable 250,000 female entrepreneurs to use our loan package”
Osman Arslan recalled that they held their first meeting in the framework of the competition in 2021, March 8, on International Women’s Day, and said that he supported the project with a video message sent to the meeting by Emine Erdoğan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip. Erdoğan. Arslan expressed that Erdoğan’s support was always with them throughout the project and thanked him.
Recalling that they launched a women’s credit support package for “Strong Women of a Strong Turkey” with the understanding “People first, then we are a bank”, Arslan continued in his speech as follows:
“Our goal in this move was to use our human power and financial resources to provide social benefit. Today I am happy to say that we have achieved the synergy we wanted and the result we wanted. As we enter the third year of our project , we are happy to say that we have achieved the desired result.” we reached 212 thousand women entrepreneurs from various professional groups and generated funds amounting to 53 billion TL We provided support and shared success stories of women entrepreneurs who ensure production and employment for our country.
For comparison, I would like to point out that this number is 8.5 billion TL for 88 thousand entrepreneurs by the end of 2021 and 23 billion TL for approximately 159 thousand entrepreneurs by the end of 2022. With the financial support we have provided, we have enabled our women entrepreneurs to satisfy their working capital needs and find opportunities for investment in equipment and product development. With credit support, we ensured business continuity for women, especially during the pandemic. I stated that so far we have provided support of 53 billion TL to 212 thousand women. “By continuing to support our women, we want to use our loan package for 250,000 female entrepreneurs by the end of 2024.”
“We’re Launching Producer Women Academy Master Class Brand Training”
Halkbank CEO Arslan said that the Productive Women Meetings project, a project that manages the business ecosystem, has become one of the largest women’s business movements in Turkey and has encouraged tens of thousands of women, saying: “Today, the loan market for women entrepreneurs in Turkey is 50 percent.” “While our bank financed this business itself, one of the two women entrepreneurs following their dreams became our business partner,” he said.
In their analysis, 45 percent of female business customers experienced an increase in turnover as a result of using the loan, Arslan said: “The average annual increase in turnover of these customers reached 66 percent and the increase in export volume reached 56 percent. while the share of women in employment in our country is 32 percent, “It was found that 58 percent of the employees of our customers – women entrepreneurs are women. We are very pleased that the support we provide to women’s business is also positive. reflected in the employment of women.” he said.
Arslan said: “When we looked at the distribution of loans our bank gave to women entrepreneurs, we saw that 42 percent were in commerce, 22 percent in services, 14 percent in transport and communications, 9 percent in manufacturing and 7 percent in the tourism. These statistics are “When we evaluate it, we think that the 9 percent share of the manufacturing sector is insufficient. One of our most important goals in the coming period will be to increase this rate through our cooperation with companies that engage in innovation-based manufacturing.” he said.
Pointing out that global competition requires changing the business habits of women entrepreneurs, Arslan said she would launch the Producer Women Academy Master Class Brand Training to strengthen women’s roles in the business world and offer them equal opportunities.
Arslan said that they plan to host 100 people who will be selected from the competition applicants for 2 days in Istanbul at the end of January, adding that they will focus on brand investment, corporate brand communication and financial literacy as part of the scope of the training program.
Prizes will be awarded to winners in 5 different categories.
According to the information provided at the meeting, Halkbank aims to become the “Bank of Productive Women”, with this project it continued the special financing solutions it has offered to women entrepreneurs and women’s cooperatives for many years, with important highlights such as strengthening the women’s business ecosystem, increasing the capacities of cooperatives and supporting innovative ideas.
As part of the project, Halkbank organized meetings in 7 regions of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, reaching thousands of businesswomen and women’s cooperatives from various professional groups, wherever it was.
Among the top 5 geographical regions that benefited the most from Halkbank’s credit support were the Marmara region with 23 percent, the Aegean region with 21 percent, the Mediterranean region with 18 percent, the Central Anatolia region with 15 percent, and the Black Sea region with 8 percent. Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Antalya, Izmir and Adana stood out as the provinces where the most female entrepreneurs were approached.
The competition will award cash prizes to winners in 5 different categories: “Productive Entrepreneur of the Year”, “Technology-Based Entrepreneur”, “Women’s Spirit”, “Zero Waste” and “Rising Star”. “. In addition to cash prizes, a package of banking services to support female producers will also be presented.
The members of the jury of the 3rd Producing Women competition are the following names:
“Designer, academician, writer and collector of food culture Gönül Paksoy, President of the Turkish Association of Business Women and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Istanbul Galata University Nilüfer Bulut, Vice Chairman of Gürok Group Esin Güral Argat, Designer Simay Bülbül, Founder of Brand Perveran and Kırmızı Çocuk Association.”, Tkalcovský artist Fırat Neziroğlu, Milka Karaağaçlı, founder of Kısmet By Milka, Aslı Gümüşel, founder of Ashley Joy, board member of Gürmen Yasemin Gür Solmaz Group, creative director of Hpeka Şendur, Yasemin Öğün, founder of Muse For All.”