On the Road to SPIEF, known as Russian Davos, TÜSİAD organized a meeting to discuss economic relations between Turkey and Rusia

In collaboration with SPIEF and with the sponsorship of Rönesans Holding, TÜSİAD organized a meeting to promote SPIEF among the Turkish business community, on March 21st, 2013, at the Istanbul Bosphorus Four Seasons Hotel.

The meeting entitled “On the Road to SPIEF: Turkey and Russia – Economic Integration Driving Regional Development” was opened with the addresses of Mr. Selahattin Çimen, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey, Mr. Igor Koval, Director of the Department for Investment Policy and Public-Private Partnership Development at the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Mr. Tayfun Bayazıt, Vice President of the Board of Directors of TUSIAD, and Ms. İpek Ilıcak, Member of the Board of Directors of Rönesans Holding.

In her opening speech, Ms. İpek Ilıcak reminded the increasing volume of business and trade between two countries and underlined the role of pioneering construction companies such as Rönesans Holding in this outcome. Ms. Ilıcak said that as a company established in Russia, they are adopting both countries as their own and hope for the development of Turkish-Russian cooperation in the third countries as well.

Mr. Tayfun Bayazıt remarked that there exists a significant economic and political rapprochement between Turkey and Russia and Russia has become the second most important trade partner of Turkey. Mr. Bayazıt expressed the contentment of TUSİAD with the recent development of the bilateral relations such as the agreement about visa-free travel and stated that they are sure that bilateral economic relations have great prospects in the near future. Mr. Bayazıt said: “The figures of the year of 2011 show that with a gross national product of 2 trillion dollar, 6th largest economy of the world according to purchasing power parity, soon to be a member of OECD, a member of the World Trade Organization representing the rule based multilateral trade system, Russia is the second most important trade partner of Turkey. Remarking the recent interest of the Russian private sector in the Turkish privatization tenders and their investment decisions demonstrate that Turkey has become an attractive investment base for Russia, Mr. Bayazıt stated that particularly through its Global Economic Relations Committee, TÜSİAD closely follow the developments in Russia. Mr. Onur Çevikel, CFO of Anadolu Efes, Mr. Rauf Kasumov, Deputy Director of Akkuyu NPP, and Mr. Ivan Pronin, Director of the Department of Investment Projects at Inter RAO UES participated to the panel discussion.

The panel concluded with the speech of the Strategic Advisor of SPIEF Mr. Jonathan Schmidt, informing about SPIEF 2013 to be held on June 20 – 22, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.


Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is a high level summit meeting which gathers international political and business leaders, leading scientists, public figures and members of the media. It is founded in1997, and organized yearly since 2006 under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation.

TÜSİAD is the sole Turkish regional partner of SPIEF, also known as “the Davos of Russia”.

SPIEF 2012 with the main theme of “Effective Leadership” hosted more than 5000 participants on June 21 – 23, 2012. TÜSİAD participated in this forum for the first time in 2012 and organized a session on the Turkish economy titled “Turkey’s Shifting Investment Flows”.