Since its establishment in 2006, the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), chosen "NGO of the Year" in 2006 by Dünya daily, has contributed an estimated $10 billion in initial contracts, providing Turkish businessmen opportunities to sign business agreements with African, Eurasian and Asian/Pacific countries. It also paved the way for long-term solid cooperation between Turkey and its trading partners.

TUSKON, at the time a new trade organization, surprised everyone with its courage to establish multilateral business conferences and confidence to say it would become a trade bridge between Africa and Turkey. Some of Turkey's established organizations and economic giants looked down on this budding organization, which essentially hoped to encourage small and middle-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Anatolian provinces.
Unlike traditional approaches to already saturated markets, TUSKON was turning its eye to regions where bilateral trade with Turkey had not been fully developed: African, Eurasian and Asian/Pacific countries. A recent conference organized by the organization was so successful and fruitful that even the organizing committee was surprised to see 550 African businessmen, ministers and bureaucrats from 30 African countries in the meeting hall. These businessmen came to Turkey on May 8-9, 2006 to seal business deals with their Turkish counterparts. Some 1,300 Turkish businessmen participated in the event, but as this was their first experience with African businessmen, they had problems communicating with one another.

Although many Turkish businessmen can speak English and there were many interpreters standing by, most cannot speak French, the dominant language in African countries. However, even this problem did not stop them and 25,000 bilateral trade agreements were signed, with trade volume reaching $250 million. Now even more experienced, TUSKON organized the second Turkey-Africa Foreign Trade Bridge Meeting on May 16-17, 2007. Compared to the first African summit, the second meeting captured far more attention in the African business community. As a result, 900 businessmen, ministers, senior bureaucrats and journalists from 40 African countries participated. Some 1,600 Turkish businessmen attended and the trade volume generated through 30,000 bilateral business meetings during the program totaled $500 million, two times more than in the previous year.

TUSKON's latest foreign trade bridge meeting took place on May 13-15 at the ?stanbul WOW Convention Center and hosted 3,500 businessmen, ministers and bureaucrats from Turkey and 45 African countries. TUSKON set up almost 1,000 tables to facilitate business meetings among Turkish entrepreneurs and their African counterparts and the goal was to reach a trade volume of $3 billion.

Looking to further develop relations with the Eurasian region, TUSKON organized a Turkey-Eurasia Foreign Trade Bridge on Sept. 17-18, 2006. Five hundred businessmen, ministers, bureaucrats and journalists and 1,200 Turkish businessmen participated in this event; 20,000 bilateral meetings took place and $250 million in trade volume was achieved.

This trade bridge was held for the second time on Dec. 4-5, 2007. It was TUSKON's fifth international event. Twelve Eurasian countries participated in the event; 500 businessmen, journalists, and ministers from various countries participated; 16,000 bilateral business meetings took place. TUSKON expected an annual trade volume of $500 million, twice that of the previous Eurasia summit.

But focusing solely on Africa and Eurasia was not enough for TUSKON's vision, so the organization turned its eyes to the Asia-Pacific region. The first Turkey-Asia/Pacific Foreign Trade Bridge Meeting took place on April 7-8, 2007 and saw the attendance of 1,400 Turkish businessmen, 300 Asian-Pacific businessmen, ministers, senior bureaucrats and 16 journalists. Some 6,000 business meetings took place and $200 million in trade volume was generated.

The second such meeting took place in Moscow, Russia on Sept. 25-27, 2007. The meeting was organized by TUSKON in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. The third meeting was held in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on Oct. 4-6, 2007, with Foreign Trade Undersecretary Tuncer Kayalar and the TUSKON board in attendance.

TUSKON does more than organize meetings. It also visits various industrial cities throughout Turkey on behalf of businessmen from Africa, Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region in order to meet with local producers, to visit their factories and to figure out Turkey's real economic potential.

This growth has led to TUSKON opening branches internationally. Its Brussels branch opened on Feb. 15, 2007 and its Washington D.C. branch on Oct. 19, 2007. The TUSKON Washington branch aims to develop trade relations between the US and Turkey and TUSKON as a whole is working to enhance its activities for Latin America and develop Turkey's trade relations countries in that region.


Todayszaman