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“We would love to see them be more generous and make more investments in Turkey,” said Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan regarding the government’s frustration that Japanese investments in Turkey are below their desired level, Friday in Ankara.
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Çağlayan spoke to reporters and met Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba on Friday in Ankara. Gemba is in Turkey for an official two-day visit. “Turkey has proven itself as a safe haven for foreign entrepreneurs who would like to make investments, and Turkey is open to some of the surrounding promising markets. … But we see that Japanese firms are not fully using this potential,” Çağlayan asserted.
Mentioning Japanese automotive investments in Turkey, Çağlayan said the government was happy to hear that Honda will begin exporting their Civic Sedan model to EU markets from Gebze this month, adding that Toyota recently decided to manufacture their new-age Corolla in Turkey. “We are also looking forward to seeing Turkish and Japanese construction firms ink deals to cooperate in new construction projects in Iraq before the end of this year,” said Çağlayan.
Pointing to an imbalance in Turkey’s bilateral trade with Japan, Çağlayan said they expected Turkish exports to the world’s second largest economy to increase faster than they have in past years. Trade between Turkey and Japan reached $4.5 billion in 2011. The majority of this trade was Japanese exports to Turkey. Çağlayan said that Turkish and Japanese firms have successfully realized joint projects in the past in other parts of the world, and that such cooperation should continue. “We should encourage more firms to engage in partnerships in countries besides Turkey and Japan,” said Çağlayan. The minister is expected to visit Tokyo in April. Çağlayan said Turkey and Japan will sign a cooperation agreement during this visit, adding he will also participate in a trade and investment summit in Tokyo in April.
Gemba said the Japanese government is expected to organize meetings to bring businessmen from both countries together to foster trade cooperation. He also met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Friday in Ankara. Following his meeting with Davutoğlu, Gemba said they discussed potential joint projects, including a third bridge over the Bosporus and cooperation in the software industry.
Japan has finalized large-scale construction projects in Turkey in the past. Two bridges over İstanbul’s Bosporus strait are examples of these. Japan had earlier submitted a bid to construct the first nuclear power plant in Turkey. Negotiations between Turkey and Japan for the construction of a nuclear power plant, however, were suspended in April last year. This was basically due to safety concerns which emerged following a magnitude nine earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan’s northeast coast, which also hit Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi complex.
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Source : todayszaman.com
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