Business

Easy Export Platform will accelerate the growth of Turkey: Trade Minister Pekcan

Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said, “As of today, we deliver our companies to our potential customers free of charge and without intermediaries, with the Easy Export Platform.”

Speaking at the Easy Export Platform 2.0 Launch Meeting held at the Presidency’s Dolmabahce Labor Office, Pekcan said that economies need to invest in innovation-based growth in order to remain competitive.

Explaining that they use all the possibilities of the technology and the digital world to increase exports and show great sensitivity to the development of the export infrastructure on the axis of digitalization, Pekcan stated that one of these development areas is “using the data correctly”.

Pekcan said, “While using the data, it is very important to be able to make the right decisions by using the most up-to-date analysis methods and to present the information revealed by the data to the service of all our entrepreneurs in a user-friendly way.”

Stating that they, as the Ministry, continue to work in this direction, Pekcan added saying, “The Easy Export Platform enables our SMEs, cooperatives and entrepreneurs, who are export targets, to access all the information they need from a single platform, in the most up-to-date form, and makes a significant contribution to our country’s export vision by processing the large-scale data provided by the digital age with machine learning algorithms.”

Pekcan emphasized that in parallel with the economic reforms announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Easy Export Platform, which is offered to exporters and entrepreneurs with export targets, will establish the spread of the country’s exports to the base and accelerate the growth of the country on the basis of investments, employment, production and exports.

Reminding that the Easy Export Platform started to serve on August 28, 2020, Pekcan explained that the platform has reached more than 107 thousand anonymous and 14 thousand registered users so far, becoming the number one source of information for the exporter and that the Smart Export Robot offers exporters user-specific market recommendations based on big data with more than 22 thousand queries.

“We maximized the scope of consultancy service”

Ruhsar Pekcan stated that the platform was shown as one of the best practices in the field of artificial intelligence by the World Economic Forum, and that it is the most advanced export support platform with public resources in the global sense, and that they were not satisfied with these successes and continued to race with them.

Expressing that they continue their efforts to pave the way for entrepreneurs by providing the strongest support they can offer, Pekcan said, “In this direction, we have created new modules that take the Easy Export Platform much further with both its technological infrastructure and user-friendly content. We have maximized the scope and value of the consultancy service offered by the Easy Export Platform with the newly added modules.”

Pekcan explained the features of the Easy Export Platform, which was commissioned in August, such as the Smart Export Robot, Market Entry Map, country and sector pages with detailed and up-to-date information.

Stating that with the Easy Export Platform 2.0, they created a new platform in terms of content, Pekcan continued as follows:

“At the top of our modules (newly added to the platform) is the alternative product robot that offers suggestions for product diversification as well as providing target market recommendations using machine learning algorithms. We not only give our exporters market advice but also provide 18 million buyers with whom they can communicate directly. In addition, we have prepared a very extensive training module. There are over 100 training videos for our companies with different export maturity.”

Pekcan said that the English correspondence templates prepared to help companies overcome the foreign language barrier and gain professionalism in correspondence procedures are included in the new module, thanks to the step-by-step export guide that will enable even individuals who have no knowledge of exports to export.

“Always staying up to date using 16 different databases”

Minister of Trade Pekcan emphasized the importance of keeping the platform up-to-date at all times, adding new ones to existing integrations, and stated that they have created an infrastructure that feeds from 16 different databases.

Pekcan stated that the many data in different content and structure they gathered on the platform provide a holistic consultancy service to exporters, “Another of our most comprehensive modules we have added to the platform is our Alternative Product Suggestion Robot, which makes alternative product suggestions specific to the existing products of our exporters using machine learning algorithms.”

Pointing out that “Association rules analysis” method enables companies to increase their turnover significantly, Pekcan said, “We also use this association rules analysis to support our exporters in product diversification. By processing millions of company-based lines of data we own, we analyze the products that our companies export or can export together and the other companies import together.”

Pekcan stated that by using the most widely used algorithms in the world for association rules analysis, they capture statistically significant relationships, thus, in a sense, they decipher the codes of trade and added saying, “As a result of comprehensive analysis, we determine which products are acting together in trade, and we recommend our companies ‘products that can be exported together’ according to the 6 Customs Tariff Statistics Position (GTIP).”

“We deliver our companies to their potential customers free of charge and without intermediaries.”

Ruhsar Pekcan stated that one of the most requested information by companies while enriching the platform is customer information, and said, “As of today, we deliver our companies to potential customers free of charge and without intermediaries. We are very pleased to present this valuable information to our exporters.”

Expressing that they show the exporters the most suitable buyers for them, Pekcan explained that they evaluate the data of the exporters from their declarations and provide them with the buyer information in the product and country they choose.

Pekcan said, “Thus, we offer the opportunity to match and communicate with companies that have the highest export potential, and the chances of our companies getting their labor are increased.”

Stating that the platform has a total of 18 million buyer information accessible to corporate users, Pekcan said, “The mentioned 18 million company information includes more than 190 countries and over 5 thousand products on the basis of GTIP. We have established a mechanism that periodically confirms the validity of the data on the platform. In this way, we will clean up the companies that have stopped their operations on a regular basis.”

Pekcan said that the cards titled “The Most Suitable for You” on the platform cover the best alternatives and that companies can reach the entire company pool, starting with the most suitable alternatives.

“There are educational videos that contain a wide range of content”

Minister of Trade Pekcan stated that they have added a “certified training module” to the platform, which is full in terms of both quantity and quality. She explained that on the platform, which contains a wide range of content, there are over 100 training videos from social media management to creating personal brands for small businesses, from digital marketing strategy to digital applications at customs.

Noting that the guide has a very user-friendly interface despite the information density it contains, Pekcan stated that thanks to this interface, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to monitor and learn the entire export process on a single page, and receive more detailed information, depending on the content of each step, with links directing them to relevant places inside or outside the platform.

Pekcan underlined that subject-specific mail templates were added to the platform in Turkish and English, with the idea that “the foreign language barrier in exports can be overcome easily”.

“We ensure that potential buyers abroad can easily reach our companies”

Ruhsar Pekcan said that the export cockpit module, which is also included in the first phase of the renewed platform, has taken on a structure that allows companies to draw a forward-looking roadmap with its new features.

Pekcan stated that in line with the firm-specific consultancy principle of the platform, a profiling was carried out taking into account the export and state support information of the companies, and stated that they directed the companies to the most appropriate state supports for them. She continued as follows, “With the platform, we not only present buyer company information to our exporters, but also enable potential buyers abroad to easily reach our companies. For this purpose, the AskTurkiye website has been integrated into the platform and has a structure that serves in 8 different languages. With the integration provided, when our companies create a profile from the Export Cockpit Module of our platform, they have the opportunity to promote the company and its products on the modern pages prepared for them on AskTurkiye.”

“More than 70 thousand tender information abroad has been added to the platform.”

Minister Pekcan stated that a new digital consultant based on artificial intelligence has recently been added to the platform and that this assistant will answer questions 24/7 so that users can use the platform much more easily and effectively.

Pekcan stated that they added information about more than 70 thousand tenders abroad to the platform and that international tenders can now be accessed through the platform, adding product quotas to the customs tax area, adding 6 new sector pages, especially for various service sectors, and increasing the number of companies that the platform provides consultancy.

Pekcan, noting that Turkey must keep up with the era and adopt the returns of the age in order to achieve its big goals, said the following, “As emphasized in the Economy Reform package, we have no choice but to achieve success in our export targets with investments, production and employment for a domestic and national economy. At this point, we have no doubt that the platform, which is a product of the efforts we have given with the dynamism of the private sector, will contribute positively to our economic goals.”

Expressing that they honor them to present and continue to develop the Easy Export Platform, which is much more technological and advanced compared to similar platforms in other countries, to the service of Turkish exporters, Pekcan concluded her words as follows:

“We facilitated export with the platform. With the new modules we have put into use today, we make export much easier for everyone and turn our existing exporters into professional exporters. In the first phase, we were providing each of our exporters with an artificial intelligence-based digital consultant. Now, we equip every potential exporter using our platform, which we expanded with modules such as trainings and field information, with virtual personnel and turn them into small businesses. Today, where we have literally cracked the codes of trade, we are one step closer to our goal of spreading exports to the base and we all say ‘export is now, export is for everyone’.”

Source: AA / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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