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Turkey seeks to set up exclusive investment zone in Syria
Today's Zaman,
Turkey, January 5, 2008
A group of
Turkish businessmen under the coordination of the Foreign
Trade Undersecretariat will soon head to Syria to seek the
establishment of an investment zone there, a zone that would
exclusively be open to Turkish companies, State Minister for
Foreign Trade Kürşad Tüzmen said yesterday.
Speaking at the
"Business and Investment Opportunities in Syria" meeting
organized by the Turkey-Syria Business Council Friday in
Ankara, Tüzmen said though just a year had passed since the
free trade agreement came into effect, great progress has
been achieved so far -- bureaucratic formalities such as
filling in statistics forms and getting approval for bills
from the consulates are to be abolished shortly. At the
meeting the minister reiterated Turkey and Syria's goal of
raising the trade volume between the two countries to $2
billion by the end of 2008, and to $5 billion thereafter.
One step Tüzmen
proposed to bolster the commercial relations was to create
an "intermodal" transportation and logistics center among
Turkey, Syria and Iraq to effectively meet the urgent
demands of Iraq, which is suffering hard times amidst the
ongoing war. He also called on Syrian officials present at
the meeting to make more use of Turkey's skilled and
experienced contracting companies. In 2007 alone Turkish
contractors completed more than $20 billion of overseas
projects in almost all parts of the world, and the scope of
their business is growing annually by more than 10 percent.
"The procurement regulations in Syria are very troubling for
our contractors," he said, and went on to say: "But they are
not deterring us. Our contractors will keep growing in the
Syrian market and our exporters will increase the trade
volume with resolve. If you provide us easier access to
Syrian infrastructure projects, the world will follow."
Syria's Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah al-Dardari, who has
been in Turkey for two days for official talks, also spoke
at the occasion where he said the relations between Turkey
and Syria were very important for them and expressed his
complete agreement with Tüzmen's statements. He said there
was a great economic change in Syria and that they were
benefiting from Turkey's experiences.
Dardari said
the private sector had an important share in the recent
investments in Syria as he pointed out the capital inflow to
Syria had increased significantly to reach $787 million in
2007.
Syria's exports
increased to $12.5 billion last year, while nearly four
years ago this number was just $5 billion, according to
Dardari. He acknowledged the success of Turkish exporters
and said they considered this as an opportunity for them to
learn from experience and succeed.
Meanwhile,
Syrian Transportation Minister Yarub S. Badr visited
Istanbul Seabuses and Fast Ferries Inc. (İDO) in İstanbul
yesterday after the meetings in Ankara. Badr told reporters
that the visit to İDO was a priceless experience for them. |
