Türkiye’s Trade Minister Ömer Bolat has highlighted the services provided by municipalities run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), speaking at the opening ceremony of Ahilik Week and the traditional “Şed Kuşanma” ceremony organized by Esenler Municipality at Esenler Dörtyol Square. Bolat noted that this year marks the 39th edition of Ahilik Week celebrations. The Ahi, meaning brothers, contribute to the economy through their production, pay taxes and create employment for our people.
Through these activities, they play a very important role in supporting the livelihoods of their families,” Bolat said. The minister said Türkiye currently has 2.263 million tradespeople and craftsmen, compared with 1.3 million when the first count was conducted in 2005. This is related to the growth of the economy.
If there is no investment in a country, if there is no production and if trade slows down or declines, then economic activity is also shrinking, which means the country’s economy is contracting,” he said. Bolat said AK Party governments had overseen major services and developments across a wide range of fields, including the economy, public administration, education, healthcare, the environment, culture, arts, sports, agriculture, industry, services and transportation. He described the government as having been instrumental in what he characterized as major economic achievements, saying: “As of the middle of this year, over 23 years, we have increased national income from $238 billion to $1.7 trillion, per capita national income from $3,600 to $18,500, and goods exports from $36 billion to $280 billion.
With Allah’s help and with the support and prayers of our nation, together we have achieved this and made Türkiye one of the world’s top five or top 10 countries in industry, services and almost every sector. Every effort has been made to ensure that all segments of our society and population benefit from this. Major services have also been provided to improve living standards and bring them to a level better than those in developed countries.” Bolat also said that, on the occasion of Ahilik Week and the Tradespeople’s Festival, the government had raised the business financing support available to tradespeople to 1.5 million Turkish liras two weeks ago.
He added that financing support for setting up businesses, purchasing machinery and equipment, and replacing commercial vehicles had been increased to 3.5 million liras. This has been used 4.76 million times. The cost of tradespeople’s business and investment loans is 20 percent.
This is about half the cost available in the market. We are working this way to strengthen our tradespeople,” Bolat said. The minister also pointed to increases in employment, the number of vehicles and the number of people who own homes, saying these achievements had been made possible through political stability, predictability and hard work.
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