In the last of his three-day visit to Turkey, Bear -- who heads the British capital’s local authority City of London Corporation -- made the opening speech at the panel “İstanbul International Finance Center: What does the London experience say about İstanbul?” held at the İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) on Friday.
During his speech, he lauded Turkey’s economic performance and said, “The scale of opportunities in İstanbul is immense.” Speaking about Turkish-British relations, Bear reminded those present that the trade volume between the two countries was at $9 billion in 2009 and that they aim to double that figure by 2015. He also noted that 2,000 British companies are operating in Turkey.
On İstanbul’s aspirations to become a financial center of the world, Bear said Turkey needs to make this dream a reality to become a global actor. He added that London owes it current position as one of those financial centers in the world to the fact that the city’s judicial infrastructure is business-friendly as well as to its well-educated personnel. “The business world looks for predictability, stability and clarity,” he also said.
İMKB president Hüseyin Erkan also took the floor during yesterday’s panel and said İstanbul is going to be a financial hub in 10 years. For him, it will take only 30 years for İstanbul to become one of the world’s leading financial centers. In order to make this dream come true, Erkan noted that the İMKB has been in regular contact with those cities that presently stand as world financial centers and trying to learn from their experiences. He added that London, in that regard, is a highly important city for them.
After Erkan, Akbank Director General Ziya Akkurt took the floor and said: “I believe we need to put our plans in practice rather than continue talking from now on. We should start acting as soon as possible and set a timetable for our actions.” He added that there have been many meetings about making İstanbul an international financial hub since 2006, but there has been little progress to that end. “The amount that needs to be invested is $2-3 billion in five years. That means a $20 to $25 billion contribution to the national economy and 150,000 new jobs. The İstanbul financial center project should not just be left on the shoulders of the current government. The government needs to be supported. There are many things currently being done, but we have no clear timetable. İstanbul faces competition from Poland, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. It has advantages vis-à-vis those competitors, but we have to start acting now,” Akkurt said. “As a banker, what I am going to say is this: In our dictionary, time is equal to money, and we are losing money as we are running behind,” he added.
