Abdurrahman Kaan, President of the Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD), issued a written statement regarding the potential job losses due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

In his statement, Kaan stated the following:

Our government officials and institutions, led by our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, are making extraordinary efforts to minimize the social, societal, and economic impacts of the global Covid-19 pandemic in our country.

As Turkey's most widespread and powerful capital platform on a global scale, we are working with over 11,000 members and nearly 60,000 businesses to provide the highest level of support to our state. One of the biggest concerns for Turkey regarding this pandemic, which will inevitably impact the global economy in the short and long term and is expected to create a new world order, is the potential job losses that will occur alongside the job losses of businesses. As an organization that has prioritized not only profit-making but also the interests of our country and the well-being of our people since our founding, we call on our members and the business community to continue providing employment, as we will do everything in our power to prevent any negative developments in our businesses operating under the MÜSİAD umbrella and to ensure that we do not experience any job losses as a result.

In this context, we believe that the deferral of withholding tax, VAT, and social security premium payments provided to our employers as part of the "Economic Stability Shield" package, the minimum wage support totaling 7 billion lira, flexible working conditions, and other benefits related to compensatory working hours will be effective in maintaining the current employment rate. As with past Employment Mobilization initiatives, we have full confidence that all our employers will take responsibility to protect employment and thus ensure that our national economy emerges from this period with minimal damage. With this spirit of unity and solidarity, we hope that the unemployment rate, which stood at 13.7% as of the end of 2019, will converge towards the 11.8% targeted under the New Economic Program (YEP) by the end of 2020.

On this occasion, we call on the leading representatives of our business community to prevent job losses. We owe a debt of gratitude to our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose unifying stance has enabled our nation to act as one during this process; to our Minister of Health, Dr. Fahrettin Koca, who have managed this process with great maturity and professionalism; to our Minister of Treasury and Finance, Berat Albayrak; our Minister of Interior, Süleyman Soylu; our Minister of Trade, Ruhsar Pekcan; and to all our ministries.