Turkey is gateway to Europe: exporters urged to collaborate with Turkish companies

Ultimate objective of Pak-Turk Businessmen Association (PTBA) is to give a quantum jump to the trade between the two brotherly countries and in this connection members of the association are regularly interacting with various chambers of commerce and industry in Pakistan, said Nida Yilmaz, Secretary General, PTBA.

Addressing to the members of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) on Thursday, he said that Turkish businessmen associations are working in almost 140 countries across the globe and are contributing in a big way to promote the trade volume of Turkey. However, he said that Pakistan and Turkey enjoy brotherly relations which could not be purchased.

He said that during last few years, business community of Turkey was regularly visiting Pakistan and are offering religious rituals of sacrifice with their Pakistani brethren living in flood affected areas of Rajanpur and D.G. Khan. They sacrifice more than 2500 cows every year and its meat is being distributed among the poor and displaced people.

Regarding business understandings, he said that the businessmen should understand each other to cultivate deep-rooted and sustained business relations. He said that our emphasis is never on promotion of Turkish exports only but we are focusing on to increase trade volume both ways.

He said that Turkey is gateway to Europe and provide huge opportunities to the Pakistani exporters to market their exportable surplus in EU countries in collaboration with Turkish companies. He said that Turkey is exporting 65 percent of its textile and vegetables to Europe and we could also streamline exports from Pakistan to Europe via Turkey as the Turkish firms are well established and well connected with the buyers of these markets.

Nida Yilmaz said that Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON) is organising a new track of its world famous series of international business summits, Turkey World Trade Bridge which is scheduled to be held in Istanbul next month. He said more than 2000 visitors from more than 124 countries are expected to participate in the event. During the event, we are expecting business agreements to the tune of $3 billion. He asked FCCI to convince its concerned members to visit the exhibition for B2B meetings.

He further said that Turkish construction firms are manufacturing PVC doors, windows in addition to steel gates and insulation materials which can be very helpful in Pakistan for saving energy. He said that one Turkish firm has already established its office in Karachi while other companies are also planning to set up their showrooms in Islamabad and other important cities of the country.

Regarding furniture, he said that Turkish firms are manufacturing costly and high quality machine-made furniture for the European consumers. He said that in Pakistan most of the furniture is hand-made but still it is very cheap and could be marketed in EU countries at a high price.

In this connection, Turkish firms could also play a major role in facilitating Pakistani manufacturers to have direct access to the potential customers. He said that a large Turkish firms has 2000 show rooms in Turkey and 1000 in Europe with total turnover of $5 billion per annum. He also announced that Turkish Government has withdrawn 25 percent anti-dumping duty on textile imports from Pakistan and hoped that Pakistani textile exporters who abandoned their deals with Turkey will once again re-consider their exports to this destination.

He said that some of international brands marketed by Turkish firms are manufactured in Faisalabad and this type of co-operation will further grow in the years to come. Earlier Mehmet Kirtas, Director Public Relations, Pak Turk Schools said that education was an integral part of socio-economic development and Turk schools have made a major role in grooming the new generations that was successfully expanding the export horizons of Turkey.

He said that Turkish schools in collaboration with Turkey businessmen are working in Lahore and other major cities and such schools could also be established in Faisalabad and Gujranwala. Earlier Engr. Suhail Bin Rashid offered welcome address to the visiting team and said that PTBA should establish a cell in FCCI in collaboration with TUSKON to provide business related information to the business community of two countries.

Published on Business Recorder, 09 May 2014, Friday