SPECIAL AWARD TO BAGIS BY THE TURKISH-ARAB ECONOMIC FORUM

The 3rd Turkish-Arab Economic Forum (TAF) convened under the auspices of the Prime Ministery of the Republic of Turkey, in Istanbul Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel, on 15-16 June 2007.

The forum which was organized with the cooperation of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) and the official support of the League of Arab States was opened by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa. 5 Prime Minister, 9 Minister, and around 500 businessmen, including Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri, Palestinian Prime Minister Salan Fayyad, Prime Minister of Somalia Nur Hassan Hussein, and Prime Minister of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Jbr Al Thani participated to the forum.

AK Party Vice Chairman and Istanbul Deputy Egemen Bagis was seen by the organizers worthy of a special award because of his close support to the Traditional Turkish-Arab Economic Forum, and the award was given by the Minister of Finance Kemal Unakıtan, and the President of the Union of Chambers of Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) Rifat Hisarciklioglu.After the award ceremony, Bagis participated to the live broadcast program of Meliha Okur in Haber Turk, where he called attention to the position Turkey reached during the AK Party government. In the ellapsed time, Turkey became a country that has a voice in the developments in the region, a country asked for help, and esteemed by other actors.

"CAPITAL FLOW STARTED"

As Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also utters frequently, Bagis emphasized that political relations are determined by economic relations today, and said, "Flow of capital to Turkey started". Reminding that the only way for Turkey's survival is foreign capital, he added:"The year before AK Party came to power, the proportion of foreign capital was 1 milliard dollars on average, whereas this proportion reached to 20 milliard dollars during the AK Party term. That means 20 fold of foreign capital is coming to our country which brings our country wealth. These investments do not take away, but contrarily, enrich our land. Turkey will survive this way. The investments of domestic investors is like taking the money from your right pocket, and putting it to the left one. However, investments from foreign investors, and the opportunities of employment created by them, is like taking the money from someone else and putting it to our pocket.