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TUSKON president: Africa is of utmost importance for Turkey
The continent was on his agenda again on Wednesday as he accentuated the significance of trade with this continent during a visit to Sudan early this week with a delegation of businessmen accompanying Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Mehdi Eker.
Speaking at the “Door Opening to Africa” seminar on Wednesday, organized by French financial institutions Gras Savoye, Gide Loyrette Nouel and Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking in İstanbul, Meral said Turkey has achieved considerable development in the African continent in recent years.
“Turkey's trade volume with Africa was $6 billion in 2005, and Turkey was exporting only $2.5 billion worth of goods in return for imports worth $3.5 billion,” Meral said and provided current figures to exemplify how trade has perked up since then. “As of the end of 2008, Turkey's trade volume with Africa was $18 billion, and the rate of exports over imports rose from its 2005 level of 60 percent to 116 percent,” he said.
TUSKON, as part of the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat's Africa strategy, also had conducted a series of meetings to boost commercial relations with African countries, Meral noted. Along with four trade bridge summits since 2006, which gathered nearly 3,000 businessmen from 52 African countries, TUSKON has also taken several well-attended business trips to a number of countries in the continent.
A TUSKON delegation was in Sudan early this week, and the confederation is planning to soon embark on journeys to South Africa and Morocco.
Meral shared his impressions from his Sudan visit, saying that it is destined to become one of the most important oil producers in the world in the foreseeable future. In addition to its vast oil reserves, Sudan also possesses a considerable amount of natural gas reserves beneath its soil, he said.
China is quite active in Sudan, as Sudan realized 47.5 percent of its annual foreign trade with this country in 2008, Meral said, adding that Turks are only represented in this country by small and medium-sized companies. Meral further pointed out that Turkish banks have no presence in Sudan, which he sees as a barrier to the further growth of mutual trade relations. “Turkey's trade volume with Sudan is $243 million, which is ridiculous,” he said.
Speaking after Meral at Wednesday's seminar, Yassir Ghorbal, a partner of Gide Loyrette Nouel, shared his thoughts on trade conditions in Algeria for Turkish companies. He recalled that there is no free trade agreement between Turkey and Algeria, noting the reluctance of Algerian institutions to sign an agreement. However, Turks have an advantage in doing business in Algeria thanks to a bilateral agreement preventing double taxation. As envisaged under this agreement, a Turkish company operating in Algeria doesn't have to pay corporate or income tax in Turkey for revenue it earns in Algeria.
Ghorbal also touched on the situation in Tunisia, mentioning its free trade agreement with Turkey. This country allows the recruitment of foreign workers and is bound by international agreements to protect intellectual property rights, he underlined.
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