TEPAV Director Sak: "Entrepreneurs cannot work like superheros; entrepreneurship must be democratized" Speaking at the 'Entrepreneurship Congress' organized by TOBB, Sak underlined capital is required but not sufficient for entrepreneurship and said: "Democratization of entrepreneurship is probably the most critical phenomenon of the era."

ANKARA - TEPAV Director Prof. Dr. Güven Sak said that entrepreneurship in Turkey must be democratized and entrepreneurs should no longer be asked to work like superheros. Underlining that capital is necessary but not sufficient for entrepreneurship, Sak said: "Democratization of entrepreneurship is probably the most critical phenomenon of the era."

In the scope of the Global Entrepreneurship Week, TOBB Entrepreneurship Congress was organized on November 6, 2010 Saturday. Delivering a speech at the session with the theme 'How to Support Entrepreneurship in Turkey', Sak stated that at the time being entrepreneurs have to act like superheros undertaking a number of tasks from coming up with an idea to finding finance and running businesses. Emphasizing that entrepreneurship has democratized throughout the world, Sak said: "Currently entrepreneurship is more democratized than ever at the global scale. In the past, you had to be inherently rich to be an entrepreneur. Now it is easier for entrepreneurs to access finance." Maintaining that Turkey demonstrates a better performance with respect to democratization of entrepreneurship compared to neighbor countries, Prof. Dr. Güven Sak continued:  "However, we need to do better in order to sustain economic development." Underlining in this respect that Turkey could become one of the ten biggest economies of the world via gains in productivity, Sak stated that innovations could trigger growth through not only the change in export composition but also the gains in productivity.

Speakers of the session moderated by Sak were the US Counselor for Economic Affairs Laird Treiber, Prof. Dr. Arman Kırım, Turkven Venture Capital Executive Partner Göktekin Dinçerler, Eurasia Capital Partner Ogeday Karahan and  Doğuş Holding Strategy Group Chair Özlem Denizmen.

Stressing that entrepreneurship can develop only in a specific ecosystem, Sak maintained that what Turkey has at hand in this issue are entrepreneurs that can recognize the opportunities, R&D supports, techno park infrastructure, and emerging private capital sector. Sak added that the performance of R&D supports and techno parks still require further evaluation and stated that private funds should be generalized. Sak went on to say that international and local private investment in Turkey has been growing both in size and in number whereas investment in early stage firms was still poor compared to R&D expenditures and number of patents. Underlining that though Turkey has no star sectors, it has a number of star firms Sak stressed that private capital and venture capital funds are of great importance in terms of supporting and discovering such firms. Sak also said that such supports have the potential to be the driving force for productivity gains in the coming period. Prof. Dr. Sak added that it might be necessary to reform institutions such as Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Institution (TUBITAK) and Higher Education Council (YOK)to facilitate entrepreneurship and asked: "Can a Turkish venture capital owner become the president of  TUBITAK, for instance?"

Turkey was laggard in discovering the entrepreneurial spirit

Delivering a speech at the opening of the Entrepreneurship Congress, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said that it is the entrepreneurs who will change the world and the country and that the prosperity of a country is closely connected with the number of entrepreneurs that country has. Hisarcıklıoğlu underlined that Turkey discovered the entrepreneurial spirit only three decades ago and that despite the high potential number of Turkish entrepreneurs was as low as 1.2 million. Also drawing attention to the low number of women entrepreneurs, Hisarcıklıoğlu maintained that out of 36 million women population only 80 thousand women were entrepreneurs. Hisarcıklıoğlu highlighted that Turkey is advantageous in this respect thanks to its young population and that the potential provided by the women population should be seized. Hisarcıklıoğlu also asked entrepreneurs to be role models in the regions they engage in business and to share their experiences.

At the opening of the Congress, Minister of Industry and Commerce Nihat Ergün, Chairperson of TOBB Young Entrepreneurs Board Ali Sabancı and TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Board Chairperson Aynur Bektaş delivered speeches.