Women in Erzurum participate in business life more. Erzurum is changing as Turkey is changing.

Yesterday this tweet was on Twitter: "I am at Erzurum REDEVCO Shopping Mall." I see thismessage every day, actually. What is the point here: There is a shopping mall in Erzurum. There wasn't one a couple of years ago. Moreover, there are people wandering around in that mall with iPhone or BlackBerry smartphones. Neither was this possible a couple of years ago. The world is changing. Turkey is changing, as well. So, does Erzurum, naturally. As of yesterday, I started to see this tweet in English. I was happy to see this. Another tweet from Sunday was from Antep. It said, "The view in Gaziantep towards morning from Sankopark's terrace," accompanied by a picture of Gaziantep. We did not have these in the past. There were no shopping malls in the eastern cities, either. We did not have Twitter as a communication tool. Neither did we have call centers in the eastern provinces of the country, Erzurum among them. Now there is, thanks to the well-directed investment decision Turkcell, Turkey's largest GSM operator, made in 2005. Women used to participate less in the labor force since they could not find jobs they could work at with peace of mind. This has changed. Women in Erzurum participate in business life more. Erzurum is changing as Turkey is changing. It is becoming a part of the current era. With technological advancement, different places look more alike. How does this happen? Are all parts of Anatolia changing in the same manner? Where do the similarities and differences stem from? Let me share my opinion with you.

Let me start with the differences between Gaziantep and Erzurum, both of which are good examples. Gaziantep became an industrial city thanks to efforts in recent years. This has not been the case with Erzurum. In terms of its industry, the set of capabilities Gaziantep offers the private sector are much more advanced now. From now on, leaving the development of Gaziantep in the hands of the private sector might be considered. Again, this is not the case with Erzurum. In regions where the set of capabilities present for the industrial and services sector are not well developed, local opinion leaders have to decide on a starting point in cooperation with the private sector and then build the initial urban capacity knowledge. Here, creative ideas such as establishing call centers are of essential importance. This is the first point to state.

Turkcell recently organized a meeting in Erzurum to disseminate the results of a TEPAV report about the economic impacts of the call center the company established in the province in 2005. What attracted my attention the most was the remarks by Ahmet Küçükler, the Erzurum mayor elected from the Justice and Development Party (AKP). He said that he had had to make a great effort to get the approval to open a shopping mall in Erzurum. Advancements do not come automatically. For instance, Turkcell executives had to decide that Erzurum was a good location in which to open a call center as it has a university. Or REDEVCO had to bring the shopping mall project onto the agenda to start the process. The governor and the mayor had to apprehend the importance of the project which would generate employment and allow the city to prosper. MPs had to push for the investment decision necessary to advance the project. It was critical that Erzurum had the communication network infrastructure that would connect the city to the world. The coexistence of these is of even greater importance for provinces with narrow sets of capabilities. Let this be the second point.

And the third one: The way to development is to completely open and diversify the channels of communication between the private sector and the public sector. With this perspective, I believe that the establishment of regional development agencies was a historic attempt. The voice of the private sector within development agencies definitely must be raised. And development agencies must improve their influence in deciding local investment priorities.

Have you ever thought what the Erzurum shopping mall, Gaziantep Sankopark, and Diyarbakır Ninova could change? Please do that. I will talk about this at length sometime. I have a purpose in saying constantly that life styles are changing.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 20.09.2011