The initial phase of the campaign will primarily focus on communicating with households and is projected to last five weeks. In this phase, the business organizations will work to persuade Turks “to go out and shop instead of getting stuck killing time behind the doors of their homes.” In the weeks that follow, the campaign will focus on producers, workers and the government. Following the meeting of representatives of participating organizations, TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu read out a common declaration.
It underlined that the representatives of employers, workers, civil servants and tradesmen have merged their powers to suggest a powerful solution to the current problems threatening the well-being of the overall economy.
The Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak-İş), the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş), the Turkish Tradesmen's and Artisans' Confederation (TESK), the Turkish Confederation of Employers' Unions (TİSK), the Turkish Public Workers' Labor Union (Kamu-Sen), the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD) and the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD) are all participating in the campaign, which adopted as it's motto “if there is a crisis, there is a solution” at a press conference held in İstanbul yesterday.
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“The crisis will surely wane with time and stop completely one day. The countries that sustain the least damage will continue the global competition ahead of their competitors that day,” he claimed. Turkey was affected by the crisis as both its consumption and production levels are on the decline while the unemployment rate has soared to record highs, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, but repeated the motto of the campaign to warn people that falling into pessimism bears no good for anyone.
“To stand up again, all we need is a stimulant. Besides, the more we coalesce in solidarity, the more chances we may have to attain our targets and the stronger our economy will become,” he said.
The declaration emphasized that the “only thing we need to weather the crisis is to keep alive households expenditures, which constitute nearly 70 percent of the entire gross domestic product [GDP].”
To list some of the harsh consequences of the crisis on the Turkish economy so far, Hisarcıklıoğlu cited rapidly declining industrial production since last August and the serious retreat in capacity utilization rates that have accelerated, especially in recent months. Although there seems to be a slight rally, the consumer and producer confidence indices are still floating at very low levels, he added. Falling foreign trade figures and stifled external financing sources passed on to a reduction in investment and consumption in the domestic field, which together fueled the deterioration of the economic conditions.
Handbills, leaflets, small and large space ads, posters and banners will be prepared as part of the campaign and will be handed out or hung throughout the country, Hisarcıklıoğlu noted. Municipalities will support the campaign by letting these advertisements run on street billboards, he said, adding that the governors are also backing the campaign by easing bureaucratic hurdles faced by the campaign. All the ads will be available on the campaign's Web site and thereby accessible to everyone. Shops and stores will be able to download these ads and hang them on their display windows after attaching their own logos to them.
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