ANKARA: Exporters of apparel, textile, leather and carpet products, under the umbrella of the Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters Association (İTKİB), recently held a discussion with the general manager of Eximbank, Adnan Yıldırım and the general manager of Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF), İsmet Gergerli, regarding the sector’s financing needs and solutions. Speaking at the discussion, Yıldırım explained what and how developments have taken place since the establishment of the bank, noting that their general directorates were located in Istanbul while the regional directorates were based in Ankara and Izmir.
Yıldırım said the bank has provided more than $33 billion of support to the exporters in 2016, including $22 billion in loans and $11 billion in insurance. Noting that almost 22.7 percent of Turkey’s exports were supported last year, Yıldırım said that their target this year was $40 billion, almost 26 percent of Turkey’s total exports. “After South Korea, we are the second largest export-import company in the world that provides support to exporters. We now aim to outdo South Korea and become the biggest supporter of exporters in the world,” Yıldırım said.
He stated that Eximbank has worked with more than 6,400 exporting companies, with regards to credit support and another 2,404 in insurance, but there are companies to which the bank provides both insurance and credit support and it works with some 7,700 exporters in total. “We have 65,000 exporters and contractor-related companies operating in foreign exchange earning fields in our target group. We want to reach approximately 100,000 companies, including 65,000 exporters, we want to provide support,” Yıldırım said.
