A number of high-level bureaucrats, government ministers and businessmen from Turkey and central and Eastern European countries are gathering today to mark the official opening of the first Turkey - Mid-Eastern Europe Foreign Trade Bridge Program at İstanbul’s Cevahir Hotel.

Organized by the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) and supported by Turkey’s Foreign Trade Undersecretariat and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the summit will bring 255 businessmen from 16 countries -- Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Kosovo, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Greece. The meeting was intended to stimulate business transactions and promote bilateral trade relations between Turkey and the aforementioned countries. More than 1,000 businessmen are expected to attend the program, which will last for two days.
“We are expecting to create $1 billion worth of trade volume with the region in initial contracts,” said Rızanur Meral, TUSKON chairman. Speaking to Today’s Zaman, he noted, “What we observe in commercial relations between Turkey and the central and Eastern European partners is an increasing trade volume.” He lamented, however, that the trade level’s current volume is far from the actual potential. Meral said he believes forums like this one will increase trade and turn potential into reality.

TUSKON ran its first trial on opening up strategy to Pacific and Asian markets in April 2006 with the foreign trade bridge program for the Asia-Pacific region. The result exceeded all expectations, with the participation of 12 ministers, 60 senior officials and 228 businessmen. It resulted in 8,000 bilateral trade meetings and achieved a trade volume of $500 million. Realizing the great potential, TUSKON officials moved to take advantage of this opportunity, organizing the Turkey-Eurasia Trade Bridge in December 2007. This time, the number of bilateral meetings and trade volume increased to 13,500 and $1.5 billion, respectively.

This year TUSKON has organized two events so far to boost commercial relations of Turkey with partners in different regions. The Turkey-Africa Foreign Trade Bridge III, held in May, achieved $3 billion worth of trade volume in the forum while the most recent one, the Turkey-Asia/Pacific Foreign Trade Bridge II, held in June, generated $500 million of trade revenue in business contracts.

With today’s program, TUSKON aims to attract more business partners from central and Eastern European countries despite the bleak outlook and signs of slowing in international trade. More than 40 Turkish businesses set up booths and pavilions to showcase their items in the exhibition hall, though this was not a requirement to participate. Meral suggests that with trade fairs like this, his organization aims to turn Turkish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into import and export companies. “We bring buyers to our businessmen so that they can exchange trade with partners from central and Eastern Europe,” Meral said.

TUSKON officials tell us that they have gone out of their way to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. They have provided a welcome desk at the airport to greet their guests. They will also provide native interpreters free of charge to participants.

For the duration of the event, TUSKON representatives have been assigned to each country to help visitors with the event, accommodation, transportation and more, with most of the costs covered by TUSKON. There is no entrance or application fee for international participants; the only expenses that visitors need to cover are airfare and accommodation in İstanbul. All other expenses, including food, city transportation, domestic flights, factory site visits, lunch and dinner, are covered by TUSKON.

On the third day, guests will also participate in on-site visits of factories and technology centers to familiarize them with Turkey’s industrial base. Other cities are also on the itinerary, with the aim of showing visitors the full spectrum of what Turkey has to offer in terms of trade opportunities.

Organizers made business transactions easier for everyone by setting up a computerized system that automatically matches African businessmen with their Turkish counterparts. Prospective clients need only enter their detailed information into a database when registering for the event, and they get to choose the time and place of a meeting from options presented to them by a centralized information system. After that, all they need to do is to wait at their table for the next meeting client to show up. In addition to scheduled meetings, visitors may also promote their business and company information by advertising on plasma screens inside the hall. This allows for great exposure for purchase and sale offers on the floor.

Todays Zaman