CEOs of American firms in Turkey visit US to support investments

The Turkish delegation headed by the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT) Chairman Arda Ermut went to the U.S. yesterday in an attempt to tell Turkey's investment environment and investment opportunities to U.S. businessmen in Washington and New York in cooperation with volunteers from the business world. The delegation named "The Voluntary Envoys of the Business World" includes Turkey's CEOs of the U.S.'s multinational companies, economists, lawyers and nongovernmental organization representatives. The roadshow, which is taking place from Nov. 14-16, includes programs that will bring together influential figures from U.S. media outlets, investment banks, credit rating agencies, and international law firms and opinions leaders from various think tanks. Also, the delegation will hold a meeting with Standard & Poor's (S&P) economists, while JP Morgan economists will give a briefing about the Turkish economy to the senior representatives of U.S. investors. The roadshow is aimed at turning a new leaf in bilateral economic relations with the U.S. in Donald Trump's period, refreshing Washington's perspective of Turkey and providing exact and correct information to U.S. decision makers about Turkey. This is Turkey's third promotional campaign after those that were conducted following the Gezi Park Protests in 2013 and the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 operations in the same year.

ISPAT reached out to thousands of people in 9 countries

Since the July 15 coup attempt, ISPAT delegations have met hundreds of businessmen and journalists in nine countries as part of promotional activities. They came into one-to-one contact with 170 companies that have close relations with the U.S. and informed them about Turkey's investment climate. Moreover, they contacted London's economists and business world representatives with the same purpose. The members of the American Business Forum in Turkey (AmCham Turkey/ABFT) issued a joint declaration, while an ISPAT declaration, including Turkey's fact sheets, were offered to more than 1,000 addressees in Canada, such as business community representatives, media outlets and nongovernmental organizations. Also, Turkish delegations held meetings with local journalists and radio broadcasters in Chicago and an economic situation assessment meeting with the public relations directors of the U.S. companies in coordination with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC) in Washington after July 15. They published interviews on Spain's El Economista, Expansion, Europa Press and La Vanguardi newspapers and sent a declaration to 2,000 investors in the country. Furthermore, delegations held either telephone conversations or one-to-one meetings with 100 German companies, while e-mails on Turkey's investment environment were sent to the German Foreign Trade Chamber, Austrian Commercial Attaché and Swiss Investment Office and an email interview was conducted.

On the other hand, ISPAT distributed information notes to the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and to nearly 200 Japan companies based in Turkey. Two of the largest Japanese banks, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) and Mizuho Bank, published the Japanese translation of the notice on their websites. The agency also welcomed the managers of the Saudi economy and tourism media in order to share information about the July 15 coup attempt. ISPAT paid a visit to Dubai in September and to Qatar and Saudi Arabia in October.

Turkey is the management base of the globe

Coca-Cola, GE Healthcare, Microsoft, Intel, Unilever, Veriphone, Scheinder, Ericcson, Cargill, Pfizer, Volvo, BASF, PepsiCo., P&G, LG and Adobe manage their offices in 94, 80, 80, 67, 36, 36, 27, 22, 20, 20, 20, 18, 14, 11, nine and nine countries from their Turkey offices, respectively.

ISPAT has prepared a success plan in four topics.

Human resource: Turkey is not an ordinary developing country, but a leader in its region with its qualified labor force. It makes efforts to undergo a transformation and establish an economy with its educated young people.

Global production base: Turkey has become one of the major production and management bases in the world. It has become "the rule maker" in the surrounding region. Regardless of whether other countries support it or not, Turkey rapidly progresses on its way to becoming a global production base.

Market potential: Turkey is the gateway to unsaturated markets and is located at a junction between the old world in the Atlantic region and the new world in the Pacific region. It has presence in various sectors. It has a middle class and small and medium size enterprise (SMEs which are the driving force of the economy). It has a strong banking sector and unique market potential.

Reformist political will: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally explained the reforms that will pave the way for global investors when he visited the U.S. The public sector can carry out mega projects in cooperation with the private sector. It can make rapid decisions to revive the investment environment.