President Erdoğan launches new ‘employment mobilization’ campaign

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on businesspeople to step up in an “employment mobilization” campaign to create new jobs to enliven Turkey’s stuttering economy, urging city governors to supervise the campaign. 

 are launching a new employment campaign with all members of [the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey] TOBB. I hope to get results that will leave behind the growth records of 2011 or 2010,” Erdoğan said addressing the economic council of the TOBB on Feb. 7. 

“I am calling on our governors, giving instructions. All of our cities will participate in this employment campaign,” he added. 

“I would especially like to say it is very important for our municipalities to take part in this employment campaign. Coordination will also be done by our government through our governors,” Erdoğan said. 

He also personally asked the honorary president of SANKO Holding Abdulkadir Konukoğlu to hire employees, to which Konukoğlu shouted an affirmation in reply.

“When my Abdulkadir Konukoğlu brother opens this door, I guess the Sabancı and Kale business groups will also follow. Of course, the Koç Group will not be idle here either,” Erdoğan said, referring to some of the biggest conglomerates in Turkey. 

In another speech in mid-2016, Erdoğan had called on Turkey’s business leaders to hire one extra employee in order to dramatically cut unemployment. 

 If each member here hires one more person, we can create 1.5 million new jobs for unemployed people,” he said at the time. 

“Will you go bankrupt if you hire one more person? No. Actually you will have a bumper business when you do this. Money stays in the world behind us when we die. People should use their money to open employment opportunities for others,” he added.

Repeating support for lower interest rates

Speaking at the TOBB, Erdoğan also reiterated his advocacy for low interest rates, again claiming that low interest rates would not lead to high inflation. 

“The most prominent cause of inflation is interest. Inflation is directly proportional to interest, not inversely proportional,” he said, adding that the business world needs low interest rates in order to be able to invest more.