TEPAV/Durmuş Yılmaz: “E-Commerce Transforms Traditional Trade” Yılmaz, member of the TEPAV Board of Directors, spoke at the meeting on e-export held in Ankara in collaboration with PayPal.
ANKARA – Durmuş Yılmaz, member of the TEPAV Board of Directors, stressed that online commerce transformed traditional commerce and said, “This is because e-export removes the obstacles that hinder traditional export performance.”
The findings of a TEPAV report titled “E-Export in Turkey: Problems and Opportunities” were disseminated with a meeting in Ankara on Wednesday, 12 November 2014.
Delivering an opening speech, Durmuş Yılmaz, member of the TEPAV Board of Directors, emphasized that exports will be one of the main components of Turkey’s economic growth in the years ahead and pointed at the importance of guiding SMEs towards global markets and improving the sophistication of export goods. Stating that the problems in the current trade system had to be overcome in order to export higher-technology goods to farther markets, Yılmaz said, “Turkey’s export performance over the last 10 years was driven by large firms exporting old goods to old markets. E-commerce has been transforming traditional trade. Underlying this is the fact that e-export removes the obstacles that hinder traditional exports. Companies engaging in e-commerce are able to sell goods and services to all around the world regardless of their scale or the distance to clients.” Yılmaz accentuated that significant problems remained including the legislation, payment systems, and the logistics infrastructure which is based on B2B export rather than B2C export.
TEPAV Program Manager Ussal Şahbaz delivered a presentation about the findings of the report “E-Exports in Turkey: Problems and Opportunities.” The study based on PayPal data as well as the results of a survey conducted with 400 companies that work with PayPal focuses on main constraints to e-exports in Turkey and possible solutions. According to the report, in 2013-2014, companies that engage in e-exports grew on average by 92% while traditional exporters grew on average by 47%. Another critical difference between traditional exports and e-exports is about export range: For the top 10 markets, the ranges are 2599 kilometers and 4208 kilometers, respectively. E-export outperforms also in terms of the share of high-quality and high-value-added goods including consumer electronics. On the other hand, differences in its value chain compared to that for traditional exports, high shipment costs, and lack of capacity for post-sale services curb the development of the sector in Turkey.
The report demonstrates that with e-export, smaller-scale firms are able to export more innovative and higher-value-added goods to farther markets. To accomplish this, the report suggests, current B2B-oriented trade system has to be transformed with a B2C perspective via legislative efforts and incentives.
Please click here for Ussal Şahbaz's presentation and the report (in Turkish)
