Turkish Economy Minister delivers new Boeing

Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan returned to Turkey from his United States visit on the first flight of the Boeing 777-300ER passenger plane, which was manufactured by Boeing Company in the U.S. for Turkish Airlines, on Saturday.

Speaking at a ceremony held at Boeing’s facilities in the Everett region, Çağlayan said there would come a day when Turkey will itself sell airplanes and hold relevant ceremonies.

“We are conducting all the necessary economic and political steps to reach our target of manufacturing our own passenger jets,” Çağlayan said. “I would like to remind Boeing that, in future procurement, we will make evaluations based on how much the Turkish private sector has contributed to the manufacture of a passenger jet,”

Commenting on his visit to the U.S., which followed meetings in South Korea, Çağlayan said companies that have run short of operational capability in Europe would come to Turkey.

Speaking to journalists at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, Caglayan said there would be a very serious inflow of international capital to Turkey because of the problem in Europe’s economy.

Referring to his visit to South Korea, Caglayan said there was a bottleneck regarding the free trade agreement in South Korea, noting that he met trade minister of the Asian nation South on the issue.

“Talks between the delegations of the two countries also took place. We hope to sign a free trade agreement by the end of this year,” he said.


/Hurriyet Daily News/