Turkey's PM says British commercial relations revived again

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the global financial crisis had almost no impact on the financial system in Turkey, adding, "Turkish banks did not experience any difficulties while a number of banks and companies in the United States and Europe had rough time during the crisis."

Speaking at the Turkey-Britain Business Forum as part of his state visit to London, Prime Minister Erdogan said, "economic and commercial relations constitute an important part of our bilateral relations with Britain. British economy ranked 6th in the world and 3rd in Europe. And Turkish economy ranked 17th in the world and 6th in Europe as a result of rapid development in the last eight years."

"Britain was the third country to which Turkey made the highest amount of exports. Our trade volume fell to 9.5 billion USD in 2009 from 14.5 billion USD in 2008 because of global financial crisis. Now, our commercial relations have revived again. In the first month of 2010, our exports to Britain rose by 45 percent and our imports from Britain climbed by 54 percent," he said.

"As for direct investments, Britain is one of the most important investors in our country. Currently, there are 2,168 British investors operating in Turkey. British investments in Turkey amounted to 4 billion USD," he said.

Erdogan told Turkish and British businesspeople that they were working hard to improve investment atmosphere in Turkey.

He said that the Business Forum to be held on Wednesday and the Economic and Commercial Partnership Committee meeting on March 18 would help efforts to further improve economic and commercial relations between the two countries.

"Turkish economy recorded an average growth rate of 6 percent between 2003 and 2008. Now, our economy has begun recovering from impacts of global financial crisis. We estimate our growth rate to be 3.5 percent for the years of 2010 and 2011. In the last 2.5 months, four international rating organizations upgraded Turkey's ratings. Monthly increases in our industrial production exceeded those in the EU-member states," Erdogan added.


/World Bulletin/