A large group of local Government officials and businessmen from Trabzon and the Eastern Black Sea region visited Washington December 9, 10. The delegation was led by the Governor of Trabzon Recep Kizilcik and included the President of Trabzon Chamber of Commerce Suat Hacisalihoglu; Presidents of Artvin, Ardesen, Pazar, and Hopa Chambers of Commerce; Secretary General of Eastern Black Sea Development Agency Cetin Oktay and members of the business community.
A large group of local Government officials and businessmen from Trabzon and the Eastern Black Sea region visited Washington December 9, 10. The delegation was led by the Governor of Trabzon Recep Kizilcik and included the President of Trabzon Chamber of Commerce Suat Hacisalihoglu; Presidents of Artvin, Ardesen, Pazar, and Hopa Chambers of Commerce; Secretary General of Eastern Black Sea Development Agency Cetin Oktay and members of the business community.
The CRBi Group hosted a “Doing Business in the U.S.” event for the group, which was attended by US Government officials, representatives from different business associations, think tanks and businessmen. A panel on doing business in the US was conducted.
The panel director was Cynthia Bunton, President of the CRBi group and the speakers were, Governor Recep Kizilcik, ATC President & CEO James H. Holmes, President of Trabzon Chamber of Commerce Suat Haciislamaoglu and Corey D. Wright, International Trade Specialist, International Trade Administration.
In his speech, ATC President Holmes welcomed the delegation and underlined the importance of their visit to Washington. He emphasized the success of the Turkish economy and said “Turkish economy has been ticking over like no other in Europe and a few others in the world. Indeed were it not for the fact that the Turkish economy has performed extremely well, we wouldn’t be here having this discussion here today.” Holmes continued that the presence of this large delegation shows that there is a positive move towards breaking the old misperceptions apparent in both directions such as the reluctance of the Turks towards the US market cause it is too big, too far, too much red tape, too small margins, while most skeptical American perception that investing or selling or buying in Turkey as too risky; business practices and legal system are too opaque; too many bad stories about doing business in Turkey. He also mentioned the latest large US investments in the Turkey such as Dow Chemical’s billion dollar JV for a billion dollar carbon fiber production, 3M and Amgen’s ½ billion dollar investments in their respective sectors. President Holmes wrapped up his speech saying that the relations between the two countries are at their 20 year peak, and the commercial and trade ties will increase with the support of both the Governments and business communities of the United States and Turkey.
You can download the speech text here: PDF