Jan. 7, 2014 04:30 UTC

Turkcell's "Women Empowerment in Economy" CSR Project Wins the Top Award from IPRA

ISTANBUL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Turkcell (NYSE:TKC) (BIST:TCELL), the leading technology and communications company of Turkey, won the prestigious International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Golden World Award for the best corporate responsibility project with "Women Empowerment in Economy". The project was also deemed the best of the best, winning IPRA's Grand Prix for Excellence after competing with all the other projects that have won the top awards in 29 categories.

A cooperation between Turkcell, Turkey's Ministry of Family and Social Policies and Turkish Foundation for Waste Reduction (TISVA), the Women Empowerment in Economy aims to promote the participation of women with limited means in the economy, and to contribute to their social and economic empowerment by helping them start up income-generating businesses, or expand their existing businesses. Its structure as a crowd-sourced microfinance project is a global first: For the first time, a mobile operator cooperates with a micro-finance institution, the Grameen Trust of Nobel Laureate MuhammedYunus and its program in Turkey, to initiate a social borrowing model.

KorayOzturkler, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Turkcellreceived both awards from ZehraGüngör, who took over the presidency of IPRA on January 1st, 2014. Emphasizing Turkcell's continued commitment to creating equal opportunities for Turkey's women,Öztürkler said "Our goal was to add Turkcell's technological power to our women's entrepreneurial spirit. The number of entrepreneurs that have joined the program has already reached 68 thousand although it has only been a year since the project was launched in 2012. The micro-credit pool now stands at 1 million Turkish liras including Turkcell's initial contribution, and crowd-sourced funds and donations. The pride of making a difference in the lives of our women is fortified by the international recognition that the project is receiving from prestigious institutions such as IPRA and Mobile Excellence Awards."

IPRA President ZehraGungorsaid, "Turkcell'sWomen Empowerment in Economy is not only a contribution to the local scene but also an interesting project with its international dimension. Bringing the micro-credit model developed by Nobel LaurateMuhammedYunus to Turkey for the purpose of creating equal opportunities to women entrepreneurs is remarkable. These reasons contributed to its selection as the best corporate responsibility project by IPRA. I congratulate Turkcell for its valuable work and for receiving these awards."

When selecting the winner of its Golden World Award in corporate responsibility category, IPRA took into account the area of focus, the aims and the successes of each project. Women Empowerment in Economy competed with projects from all around the world.

With this project, Turkcell and its partners aim to reach 100 thousand women - an effort that is well on track. In addition to its initial financial support of 400 thousand TL dollars, Turkcell launched an online handcrafts bazaar that gives women the opportunity to sell their handmade products. Turkcell also initiated entrepreneurs enjoy in-class and remote learning opportunities for its women entrepreneurs in 11 Turkish cities covering issues like business growth and marketing.

ABOUT TURKCELL
Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, with 34.9 million subscribers as of March 31, 2013. Turkcell is a leading regional player, with market leadership in five of the nine countries in which it operates with its approximately 69.2 million subscribers as of March 31, 2013. It has become one of the first among the global operators to have implemented HSPA+. It has achieved up to 43.2 Mbps speed using the Dual Carrier technology, and is continuously working to provide the latest technology to its customers, e.g. 84 Mbps in the near future. TurkcellSuperonline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Turkcell, is the one and only telecom operator to offer households fiber broadband connection at speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps in Turkey. As of February 28, 2013, Turkcell population coverage is at 99.19% in 2G and 84.26% in 3G.Turkcell reported a TRY2.7 billion (US$1.5 billion) revenue with total assets of TRY18.9 billion (US$10.4 billion) as of March 31, 2013. It has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey. Read more atwww.turkcell.com.tr

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