Abdel Aziz was in Turkey on an official three-day visit at the invitation of President Abdullah Gül, the first visit to Turkey by a Mauritanian president. Attending a meeting organized by the Turkish-African Business Council in İstanbul on Saturday evening, he said Mauritania would benefit from Turkey’s experience, especially in investments, to ensure the development of the country. Mauritania will work to boost the blossoming relations between the two countries, the president stated, adding that they will provide Turkish investors with all kinds of facilities. As a start, a Mauritanian embassy will be opened in Turkey, he said.
Mauritania offers lucrative opportunities for those who want to invest in the country, Abdel Aziz said. “Improving mutual relations will be beneficial for both sides in the near future. Mauritania has nearly 600 different types of underground resources. A number of these have not been processed efficiently until now. Only iron, copper and gold ores are being turned out so far. The country also has oil and natural gas resources, along with big opportunities for fisheries,” he said, stressing that there is a wide range of sectors in which to invest. Abdel Aziz called on Turkish businessmen to visit his country and establish relations with their Mauritanian counterparts.
Tamer Taşkın, the chairman of the Turkish-African Business Council, which operates under the umbrella of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK), stated that the aim of the council is to create a platform for Turkish and African businessmen to come together and establish relations. Currently, there are nine business councils under the Turkish-African Business Council. Of these, five are with southern African countries, while the remaining are with sub-Saharan countries.
“Over the last few years, improvements in economic and political relations with countries in Africa became the most important part of Turkey’s foreign strategy. The Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade put its strategy to boost economic relations with African countries into effect in 2003 and named 2005 ‘Africa Year’ as part of this strategy. Turkey became a member of the African Development Bank Group in 2008 and opened new embassies in six African countries, increasing the number of embassies in Africa to 20,” Taşkın stated, stressing that all of these positive political developments lead DEİK to further increase its targets related to African countries.
Speaking about the targets, Taşkın said they are aiming to increase the number of African countries with which Turkey has a business council to 54 in the long term, while the mid-term target is to establish business councils in African countries where Turkey has embassies. “We hope to establish a business council with Mauritania, too, and we want the trade volume between the two countries, which is about $20 million currently, to increase incrementally.”
Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) Chairman Rızanur Meral stated that their aim is to see trade volume with Mauritania reach $100 million by the end of the year. In 2007, the confederation sent a Turkish trade mission to Mauritania, he said, adding that they want to carry out high-tech projects in the country.
