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“Turkish-German Cooperation and Investment Conference”
Talking Points of Mr. Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Finance,
Turkey
6 October 2010
Distinguished Guests,
I would like to extend my regards to you all.
In today’s world where balances have changed due to the
global crisis, the importance of bilateral relations between
countries increased further.
Therefore, I believe that this activity which brings the Turkish
and German authorities and businessmen together will be
quite beneficial.
In the post crisis period, cooperation is needed more than
ever in the Turkish-German bilateral economic relations.
Distinguished Guests,
Any relationship to be established between the Turkish and
German firms will be in favor of the two countries.
Germany is one of the rare European countries that showed
early signs of recovery from the crisis after the crisis thanks
to its industrial and technological power, market size and
especially experience.
The Turkish entrepreneurs residing in Germany should take
advantage of this opportunity.
Approximately 3.5 million Turkish people reside in Germany.
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It is seen that the young and dynamic population of the
Turkish people living in Germany have a potential not only as
a worker but also as an entrepreneur.
About
100
thousand
Turkish
entrepreneurs
provide
employment for 375-400 thousand people with an investment
of 10 billion euro in Germany.
Distinguished Guests,
As for Germany, on the other hand, Turkey seems to be a
quite attractive investment hub.
Turkey has overcome the crisis thanks to its sound
macroeconomic foundations and timely measures and
distinguished itself from the rest of the world in a positive
way.
At the moment, the Turkish economy holds the European
record for growth, creates most employment, decreases
budget deficit and debt stock, and has a downward trend in
inflation.
The Turkish economy has been in a rapid recovery period
since the last quarter of the last year.
This growth trend maintained in the second quarter of 2010
in a sound way.
Turkey grew by 10.3 percent and became the fastest growing
country together with China among the G-20 countries in the
second quarter of 2010 while 6 EU countries continued
contracting.
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As a result of the policies developed against the crisis and
resilience exhibited by Turkey, credit rating of Turkey was
upgraded for four times at short intervals.
One-digit inflation and interest rates achieved after a long
time lead an increase in the confidence of domestic and
foreign investors in the Turkish economy.
Distinguished Guests,
Germany has an important place in the foreign trade of
Turkey.
Germany is the leading country among the countries Turkey
has the highest imports volume.
Foreign trade volume between Turkey and Germany which is
a leader in the world trade reduced to 23.9 billion dollar in
2009 due to the world crisis.
However, in the period of January-August 2010, foreign trade
volume reached 17.8 billion dollar by 19 percent y-o-y
increase.
Moreover, the two countries have a wide range of
cooperation fields.
Manufacturing, automotive, textile and confection, electronics
industry, banking and tourism are important cooperation
areas.
Double
Taxation
Avoidance
Agreement
revised
with
Germany is at the final stage.
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With this agreement, we intend to resolve double taxation
problems resulted from economic and commercial relations
between the two countries.
Distinguished Guests,
With its strategic geographical location with high logistics
advantages, adequate production capacity, technological
infrastructure at international level and strong sub-industry
compatible with the global standards, Turkey is rapidly
making its way to become the new star of Europe.
Furthermore, Turkey has many advantages which will attract
investments such as full integration with foreign partners,
international quality management systems, experienced and
trained labor force and full adjustment to the international
technical standards.
In fact, the number of foreign companies established in
Turkey in parallel to these developments exceeded 25
thousand as of June 2010.
Recently, Germany, which ranks first in terms of the number
of foreign companies established in Turkey, has increasingly
shown interest in Turkey.
The number of German-capitalized companies in Turkey
increased to 4,290 in July 2010 from 1,405 in 2004.
Furthermore, the amount of foreign direct investments from
Germany to our country increased to 1.2 billion dollar in 2008
from 86 million dollar in 2002.
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Due to the impacts of the global financial crisis, this amount
decreased to 485 million dollar in 2009.
Distinguished Guests,
Such activities which bring the Turkish and German business
world
together
will
make
great
contribution
to
the
enhancement of the commercial relations and investments in
these sectors between the two countries.
Thanks to these activities, I believe that the exchange of
ideas and cooperation opportunities will develop further.
Determining cooperation opportunities, creating suitable
environment for joint ventures and ensuring exchange of
information are the elements that will further develop
economic and commercial relations.
I would like to thank you for your attention and I would like to
extend my sincere regards.
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