Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan paid an official visit to the US on April 15-18, 2012 to hold bilateral and multilateral meetings with the CEO’s representing US multinational companies interested in investing in and enhancing trade relations with Turkey.
Source: Ministry of Economy
Turkish Exporters’ Union President and high level representatives from several exporter unions and NGOs also attended the visit as part of a trade delegation.
Minister Caglayan held meetings with the CEO’s of Kimberly Clark, 3M, PepsiCo., Quest Diagnostic, General Electric, Blackberry, Chrysler, KBR, Wolverine Group, Energy Allied and Alterra International. During these bilateral meetings he briefed the American CEO’s about Turkey’s new incentive system and invited them into Turkey to take advantage of the investment opportunities in Turkey.
Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan also held working meetings with high level representatives from the top 100 companies on the Fortune 500 and member CEOs from the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), representing 150 leading US firms that have significant lobbying power.
Turkey’s successful economic performance, developments related to Turkish foreing trade, investment environment in Turkey and the new incentive system have been main agenda items of these meetings.
On the Washington leg of his official visit to the US, Minister Caglayan came together with reporters from US media giants such as Bloomberg, Dow Jones, New York Times, Reuters, Washinton Post, EurasiaNet, and gave them detailed information on Turkish economy and foreign trade, investment climate and new incentive system.
On the Houston leg of his US visit, Minister Caglayan has officially opened the Office of the Turkish Commercial Attaché.
Minister Caglayan visited the Turquoise Center and talked to the Turkish businessmen and citizens living in Houston. He emphasized the importance of contributions of the Turkish Diaspora to better introduce the investment incentives in Turkey and ensure that the US firms consider Turkey as an R&D and investment hub. Minister Caglayan also paid a visit to the North American College founded by Turkish entrepreneurs.
Minister Caglayan’s visit, aiming at stimulating the bilateral economic and trade relations that are not as good as political and security relations that reached to “model partnership” level, has been very productive in terms of conveying effectively his message that Turkey becomes more attractive for foreign direct investments.
Following his visit Minister Caglayan announced that Pepsi Co. decided to increase their 800 million dollar investment in Turkey to five billion dollars; 3M wants to establish Turkey as a main base of operations and an investment center; Kimberly-Clark plans to redirect investments in other nations to Turkey, and General Electric (GE) plans to build a 10,000 kilometer long railway network.
