On the one hand Turkish industry was prevented from showing the basic development in line with the conditions of international competition through an extreme form of "mercantilism" consolidated with laws drafted on import substitution as if this was a very positive step to take. And on the other hand, the Turkish people were confined to products of very poor quality as manufacturers lacked the maturity that comes with competition. They tried to cover up this ineptitude under a blatantly meaningless form of nationalism through holding homemade product weeks, publicized by the famous slogan, "Homemade products are Turks' products; everyone must use them." On the receiving end of these losses was the consumer; namely, the nation. Those who hit the jackpot were a handful of businessmen enjoying a symbiotic relationship with the state that found a tailor-made market for their low-quality products manufactured behind the shield of mercantilism. Those years were the times when high-quality products entered the country through illicit ways and came to be associated with foreign products sold on the black market. Any sort of foreign product was illicit and carrying any foreign banknote was a crime in those years.

As was the case with the Turkish economy, which could not find the strength to compete in the international markets, Turkish foreign policy gravitated toward short-term targets. Turkey came to console itself in the fields "approved" by the super power of its bloc in a bipolar system. Whether on ideological or historical grounds, it was a Turkey on terrible terms with all its neighbors that surrounded it. It was of course completely out of the question for a Turkey at loggerheads with its neighbors to develop any sort of relations with lands farther away. In those years, neither the Arab world nor Africa, Asia or Pacific countries could be of any interest to Turkey, which was busy quarrelling with Iraq, Iran, Syria, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Russia. Indeed, they were of no interest to Turkey.

This pusillanimous, cowardly and hung-up period of Turkey persisted until the 1980s when the late Turgut Özal arrived in power. With his great courage, he replaced all the archaic paradigms that caused Turkey to retire into itself. He opened up the horizon of the country and encouraged Anatolian capital. While eliminating the country's walls of mercantilism before foreign products, he introduced the Turkish business world to international economies and markets. Turkish entrepreneurs, frankly speaking, proved to be deserving of these reforms. The Anatolian tigers that transformed the trail Özal blazed between international business circles and Turkey into a highway are now all around the world. Turkish entrepreneurs -- who have left no place in the world unvisited, particularly through educational, social and cultural infrastructure formed by the Gülen movement -- and therefore Turkey are now interested not only in nearby countries but also in the entire world.

The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) founded by businessmen known for their close ties to this movement is now playing a pioneering role in this expansion. Through the trade summits held by TUSKON, Eurasia, Africa and the Pacific countries have now each become our neighbors. The very first thing to be seen by those who look at the projection of the recently growing dynamism and the multidimensional foreign policy of Turkey is the original and unique activities of this young and dynamic business organization. Of course, the formation of this TUSKON success will carry the traces of the fecund milieu generated by the Turkish schools, which have established very sound and reliable ties between the Turkish nation and various nations all across the world.

In an effort to further the economic ties between Turkey and the African continent, the third African Foreign Trade Bridge program started yesterday, organized by TUSKON, which has brought the Eurasian and Pacific closer through successful "trade bridge" activities. The level of participation in the program, which will end tomorrow evening, is really marvelous. The program is anticipated to generate 40,000 business meetings and a $3 billion trade volume with the participation of about 3,000 African and 2,500 Turkish businessmen. Being attended by nearly 100 ministers from 45 countries, the event is also expected to raise the level of success more than the first two programs. As a result of the 46,000 business meetings held since the first Turkish-African Trade Bridge in 2006, a total sum of $2.5 billion has been reached in trade volume.

TUSKON Board Chairman Rıza Nur Meral also draws our attention to this success, saying that there are very intense trade ties with very many countries with which Turkey had no business relations until 2006. Finding out that our export to Somalia has grown by 570 percent, to Zambia by 3,380 percent and to Chad by 4,500 percent in the last one year should be enough to demonstrate Turkey's decades-long negligence toward the region as well as the great efforts exerted in the recent years to eradicate the effects of this negligence.

The current trade volume between African countries and Turkey is approximately $15 billion. Even if it increases to $20 billion in the short-term, no one can say that it is enough. Even if Turkish contractors are expected to soon undertake construction projects valued at $10 billion in addition to ongoing ones, worth $16 billion, Turkey's potential of increasing its economic relations with Africa is far greater than these sums.