Minister of Commerce Mehmet Muş, who came to Aksaray for a series of openings and visits, visited the Aksaray Chamber of Commerce and Industry and attended the Aksaray Business World Consultation meeting.
ATSO Assembly President Fatih Tekin, who made the opening speech of the consultation meeting attended by Aksaray Business World, Aksaray, which is in the center of Turkey due to its strategic location, is one of the most important provinces of our country with its geographical location, culture and history. Today, just as Istanbul connects Europe and Asia, Aksaray is connected to all our cities by highways extending to 7 regions of our country. While our industry is experiencing a demand explosion day by day in our city, where the world's biggest brands are located, we put our new organized industrial zones into practice and offer them to our domestic and foreign investors. In the next 10 years, I believe that Aksaray will be among the top 10 provinces of Turkey in trade and industry. In this context, I would like to thank you and greet you with respect, love and affection by stating that we believe that our ministry of commerce will also provide convenience and support to our companies at the point of import and export until the end.
Emphasizing that Aksaray has one of the top 10 organized industrial zones in Turkey, which is based on a single area and considering the occupancy rates, ATSO Chairman of the Board Ahmet Koçaş said in his speech; Aksaray Organized Industrial Zone is at 99% occupancy rate with 260 companies in production, 321 companies with 14.000 employment and ongoing investments, with a total of 581 investors when all investments are completed. As a result of the increasing demand, an organized industrial zone was established in Sultanhanı, Eskil and Ortaköy districts to meet the needs of our investors, and the application for the addition of an expansion area in our existing OIZ area is at the ministry approval stage. I would like to thank you, our Governor of Aksaray Hamza Aydoğdu, our deputies, Mayors, Provincial Managers and everyone who contributed to the establishment of the existing OIZ expansion area and district OIZs once again. Rising raw material prices in foreign currency, logistics problems in exports, high financing costs, and ever-increasing input costs are putting pressure on our industrialists. As you can see, it is our business world's expectation from you to provide new incentives and supports to our investors who provide all kinds of support to their state and country in these lands where the industrial city of the future is built in Aksaray with the power of common mind. It is our request to establish a low-interest credit mechanism, as in the tradesman credit surety cooperative of the members of the chambers and exchanges within the scope of TOBB. Aksaray's export figures were announced as $214 million in 2022, and a new record was broken for our province in the history of the republic, and our exports increased by 25.30% compared to 2021.
Our province ranked second among the TR71 provinces (Kırıkkale- Kırşehir- Nevşehir- Niğde) in exports after Kırşehir. In 2022, the most exported countries from our province are respectively; Bangladesh (17.8 million $), Bulgaria (16.6 million $) and Iraq (12.6 million $). The year 2023 is the 100th anniversary of our country, and this year, as Aksaray business world, we will break new records by going far beyond the year 2022. Aksaray has become one of the biggest industrial cities of our country today, and I would like to thank all our exporting companies who contributed to this success and helped our city break a new record in the history of the Republic, and wish them success in 2023. Rising raw material prices on the basis of foreign currency, logistics problems in exports, high financing costs, and ever-increasing input costs are challenging our industrialists. is the expectation of our business world from you. It is our request to establish a low-interest credit mechanism, as in the tradesman credit surety cooperative of the members of the chambers and exchanges within the scope of TOBB. Our city will have an advantageous position in the investment incentive system, and when the necessary investments in the transportation infrastructure are completed, our city will be in an advantageous position. It does not seem rational for our city to achieve its vision of being an industrial city with a highway infrastructure alone. In order to increase the competitiveness of our city, it is necessary to work on the establishment of integrated logistics and transportation systems. In short, it is of great importance to bring railway investments to our city. With the realization of these investments, Aksaray will gain great momentum in the fields of industry, trade and agriculture. Newly established companies are exempt from fees, but when the branch of the same company is opened, they are subject to expenses, so branch openings become very costly and companies do not make branch openings official due to high costs.
Fees, advertisement fees, room service fees are subject to change of address of companies or real person merchants.