TURKEY IS ON THE WAY OF LEADING ECONOMY IN ITS REGION

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis stated that Turkey was making strides towards leading economy in its region and said “Turkey is ambitious to achieve its major goals on the way forward. We could make the world’s 26th biggest economy to become the 16th today.”

In his statement at the HOME&TEXT Home Textiles and Decoration Expo organized in the context of CNR Expo İstanbul, Minister Bagis said that they had opened the Marmaray Tunnel Project on the day of the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey and that Marmaray was not an ordinary project but an important one which connected Beijing to London and the Far East to the westernmost point of Europe.

Minister Bagis said that during their visit to Finland, Sweden and Poland together with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the opening ceremony, Marmaray was talked about all the time and that heads of the governments and states of those countries had expressed their pleasure of this major project.

“They made us feel this by saying that they were used to pass over the Bosphorus but for the next time they would pass under it, too. Now leaving her signature on this kind of projects, Turkey is ambitious to achieve its major goals on the way forward. We could make the world’s 26th biggest economy to become the 16th today. Yet if we want to be one of the world’s strongest nations, we have to do it all together. That is to say, if our brothers in this expo are closing the sale at 100 TL, they should increase it to 400 TL. If we are now sending 100 trucks to Tatary, we should increase it to 400.” said Minister Bagis.

Minister Bagis also pointed out the importance of branding and said “If we view, as a rival, the countries such as India and China which are proud of their cheap labour, we only become a subcontractor country providing cheap labour without branding. But if we take the necessary steps on branding with the incentives of Ministry of Economy, which have major projects on the issue, then we can compete with a handful of mega-brand countries such as America, Italy and France.”

Stating that Turkey’s doors were open to all, Minister Bagis emphasized that İstanbul had become one of the world’s top financial centers and the each skyscraper rising up in Ataşehir were a clear reflection of this claim. “Likewise, this kind of events and expos shows that Turkey has made great strides towards leading economy in its region.” he added.