TÜSİAD – Koç University Economic Research Forum (EAF) organized a panel discussion on the “Turkish Economy: Opportunities AND Challenges”, on April 23rd, 2013, in Washington D.C. Mr. Jose Fernandez, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs delivered a speech as the keynote speaker.
Mr. Fernandez stated that expanding bilateral economic relations between the US and Turkey has been one of the high priority issues of his office at the Secretary of State and during the 10 years of his mission there, Turkey has been one of the countries he visited most frequently. Mr. Fernandez underlined great prospects for the U.S.-Turkey bilateral trade and investment relations and pointed out the high growth of Turkey and the doubling trade volume between the two countries. Remarking that only four percent of the foreign direct investment in Turkey originate from the US, Mr. Fernandez cited the lack of familiarity with the Turkish economy and market among many US companies, as the a cause of the insufficient level of foreign investment.
Focusing on the business opportunities in Turkey, Mr. Fernandez identified infrastructure investment in Turkey as a main opportunity for the US companies. He cited the new railway and highway projects, technologic innovation plans, Fatih Project and the new Istanbul Airport as examples of ambitious infrastructure investment plans of the Turkish government. Mr. Fernandez said that every one of these is a great opportunity and US companies have a global experience in providing solution for the infrastructure projects; and he remarked that Turkish private sector companies are aware of the need of increasing their competitiveness through innovation and use of technology and these also are among the strengths of the American companies.
Mr. Fernandez indicated that the growing Turkish middle classes and their increasing consumption constitute “an increasingly important market for the American goods and services”. He mentioned the pharmaceutical industry and said that the share of Turkey in the global investments of the pharmaceutical industry is merely 1 percent, which is far lower than what the potential of Turkey indicates, considering the dynamism and the general state of its economy. Underlining the huge opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry of Turkey, Mr. Fernandez stated that they are working to motivate American pharmaceutical companies to invest in Turkey. Mr. Fernandez warned that if American companies do not take necessary actions, they may fall behind in this race, as Turkey cannot wait American companies for these investments.
“The negotiations with our Turkish colleagues are more efficient than others.”
Mr. Fernandez noted that in spite of growing Turkish Economy, most Turkish companies are still small or medium sized enterprises, and they have difficulties in their foreign trade operation and particularly in entering large markets such as US. While many Turkish companies give up opportunities of doing business with American firms because of these difficulties, Mr. Fernandez stated that they are trying to smooth these problems and the awareness of opportunities will increase in the business communities of both countries as a result of these activities.
Mr. Fernandez remarked that big companies obviously do not need governmental action to create necessary connections, and hence they are working essentially to develop the dialogue between SME’s of the two countries. He stated that the governments of the two countries focus on the long term relations and they are cooperating well, and he expressed that the negotiations with their Turkish colleagues are more efficient than others.
“I’m very positive”
Mr. Fernandez described the target of Turkey to be among the largest 10 economies of the world by 2023 as “a very ambitious economic target”. Mr. Fernandez argued that in order to achieve this goal, Turkey needs to become more transparent, more predictable and more innovative, and he expressed that in these spheres they are ready to cooperate with Turkey already on the right path. He underlined the creativity and entrepreneurship as the main engine of sustainable long term growth and achieving 2023 targets and emphasized the need to strengthen the intellectual property rights.
Mr. Fernandez also stated that bilateral cooperation of Turkish and American companies in third countries are functional and real.
Mr. Fernandez said that Turkish companies have an excellent track record in the Middle East and Eastern Europe and therefore they are natural partners for the American companies which consider doing business in these regions but hesitate about investing single-handed. He remarked that during recent years he witnessed how easily companies from the two countries form partnerships. He noted that there is still quite a lot to be done in order to further the bilateral economic relations and he concluded by expressing his positive vision about the future of bilateral economic relations between the two countries and economic prospects of Turkey.
-
-
-
-
Newsletter