The “World Turkish Entrepreneurs Council” meeting featured two government ministers as well as the head of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) addressing participants in İstanbul, which is often referred to as Turkey's business capital. The emphasis of all the three speeches was on how decisive the Turkish diaspora's role will be in reshaping the world's power structures, putting Turkey in a far more important position than it already occupies.
“Turkey is going to become one of the world's top 10 economies thanks to its diaspora,” said TOBB President Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu, adding that Turkish expats have already notably contributed to the economic progress their homeland has attained over the years. “Now we have a Turkey that has become the source of hope for people in need and the oppressed, a country that donated $1.7 billion in humanitarian aid last year. Please do not forget that we were waiting at the doors of the International Monetary Fund [IMF] to receive that amount of financial assistance ourselves only a decade ago,” Hisarcıklıoğlu said, explaining that the most dynamic actor behind this transformation have been the Turkish entrepreneurs who are now found around the world. “We now have global Turks. This treasure of ours is the Turkish diaspora, which today has a size of nearly 6 million people,” he said.
Turkish expats are particularly active in Europe, where they own 140,000 businesses, offering employment to people of their host countries as well. The most powerful Turkish association in Europe is the Brussels-based European-Turkish Business Confederation (UNITEE), which has 10,000 businesspeople and 2,000 white-collar professionals as its members across the continent. The number of Turkish associations operating overseas, however, is nearly 4,000 and there are 130,000 Turkish university students currently studying outside of Turkey. For Hisarcıklıoğlu, the only thing needed is to rally all Turkish expats to the same cause. “What is it that such a power cannot accomplish? This would make our country turbo-Turkey,” he said.
For his part, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan elaborated on the same topic, saying: “Turkey is no longer a country that asks for outside financial help and therefore takes orders [from lenders] and whose agenda is consequently shaped by other countries. It is now a country whose economic success is carefully analyzed as an example.”
Also acknowledging the Turkish expats' contribution to Turkey's economic advancement, Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazıcı particularly drew attention to the contribution of the Turkish diaspora to Turkey's lobbying power overseas. For him, the country can do a better job in explaining its justified position vis-à-vis certain foreign policy matters to other countries with Turkish expats' involvement in its efforts. |
Source : todayszaman.com
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