On his maiden two-day visit to India, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that the trade and investment relations between both the countries need to be re-explored with various institutional mechanisms being initiated towards this end. Addressing the India–Turkey Business Summit’ organised by FICCI, Erdogan maintained that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations should be expedited to boost the fortunes of both the nations.
Addressing the occasion, Erdogan noted, “We need to boost our bilateral trade and investment relations. We need to augment our economic relations and will have opportunity to discuss this with Modi. As a starting point, we need to relook at the broad contours of FTA which would add further momentum to our relations. At present, the balance of trade is highly skewed against Turkey which is not sustainable and there is need to increase reciprocal investment so that trade balance is achieved.” He also affirmed that by replacing the international currency (US dollar) in favour of local currencies (dollar and rupee) for trade purposes can also be looked at in the medium to long term.
President Erdogan said that the Turkish economy grew at 7.1 per cent between 2011 and 2015. This dipped to 2.9 per cent in 2016, but this year growth was projected at 4.5 per cent. The country offered a large domestic market, a disciplined work force, laws that were enacted to promote investments and great importance was being attached to structural economic reforms.
In his welcome address, Pankaj Patel, president, FICCI and CMD, Zydus Cadila-Cadila Healthcare Ltd, stated Turkey’s geo-strategic location and India’s rising economic stock in the region, and globally, should be ideally utilised by the businesses of both the countries for reaching to their domestic markets and that of their neighbouring countries. He urged Indian industry representatives to reach out and make potent business plans to capitalise on the economic vibrancy of Turkish economy for mutual gains.
BW Reporters
The author is a Principal Correspondent at BW Businessworld.
