President Gül of Turkey to push for industry initiative in Pakistan visit

Islamabad, Pakistan | December 03, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

The head of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) announced on Friday that they are planning to build joint industrial zones near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, reports the Turkish newspaper, TodaysZaman.

TOBB President Rifat Hisarciklioglu told the Anatolia news agency that he is also accompanying President Abdullah Gül during his official two-day visit to Islamabad, which kicks off today, and would have talks there concerning plans by his union. TOBB plans to lead a similar form of cooperation titled the “Istanbul Forum” between Afghanistan and Pakistan through projects which could well go beyond the creation of industrial zones, sources involved with the issue reported told Today’s Zaman on Tuesday.

The idea for such a project came to the agenda during the first meeting of a three-way committee — the Joint Working Group established by the Ankara Declaration of April 30, 2007 — hosted at the Foreign Ministry in August.

The Ankara Declaration was issued following a summit between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart, Pervez Musharraf, when the two leaders pledged to step up joint efforts to curb the Taliban militia. They also agreed to set up the Joint Working Group, including Turkey, to monitor progress on bilateral issues. Brought together by the Turkish government, the pair then issued the joint statement known as the Ankara Declaration, which stresses mutual commitment to fighting terrorism.

At the August meeting, the Turkish side also offered to hold meetings between the two countries’ top bodies of chambers of commerce and industry at the invitation of TOBB. This meeting took place in Turkey in October, Hisarciklioglu said, noting that a memorandum of understanding was signed then by the three parties involved.

In addition to Musharraf, Gül will also hold talks with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, while efforts for arranging a meeting between Gül and Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, were also under way as of Friday.

“Pakistan is a friendly and brotherly country,” Gül told reporters earlier this week. The visit to Islamabad will be “in support of all of Pakistan,” Gül also stressed as he was speaking at a press conference in Paris, where he was wrapping up a visit to France to rally support for Turkey’s bid to host the global EXPO 2015 fair.

D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, commenting on the visit said that he deeply wish that this event can be a cementing bridge to intensify the good relations between the two countries, especially in trade and economic fields, as lined out in D-8 summits and other related programs of the D-8 Organization. “We hope to see more concrete results can be worked on for a more intense cooperation among our member states,” he said in his office on Monday, citing the example of the Joint Venture signing between Iran and Indonesia in petro-chemical sector last month.

Huge economic potentials to work out together

Meanwhile, the Consul General of Turkey, Erdem Mutaf said that there exist a great potential of trade and joint ventures (JVs) between Pakistan and Turkey and both countries could gain fruitful results by mutual cooperation.

He was talking to the members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Friday last week.

He said business and trade community of Turkey is interested to initiate JV in the areas of machinery, chemicals, surgical instruments, automotive industry, textile and clothing, natural stones, ceramic, IT and software, shipping, jewellery and construction.

Mr Mutaf said the bilateral trade volume increased from $130 million in 2001 to nearly $600 million in 2006. “We target to reach $1 billion in near future”, he added. He pointed out that there were bright chances of investment as cumulative inflow of net foreign direct investment in Turkey exceeded $50 billion during 1980-2006. Tourism industry in Turkey enjoys tax exemption, he said.

He said Turkey has become 17 biggest economy in the world with a nominal GDP exceeding $400 billion, besides GDP per capita income of $5,500 and set a target for 2010 to become one of the ten economies in the world with a GDP per capita income of $10,000. He also informed that senior vice president, KCCI, Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh said invited the Turkish businessmen to participate in My Karachi, An Oasis of Harmony exhibition on June 6-8, 2008 at Karachi Expo Centre.

He said Karachi’s share in the country’s financial activities is about 40 percent, 30 percent of manufacturing, 40 percent of large scale manufacturing, 50 percent of bank deposits and 68 percent of tax revenues.

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