Foreign investors should partner with Turkish industrialists: Minister

ANKARA / PARIS – Reuters

The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Maria van der Hoeven poses with Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz who chairs the IEA. AFP photo

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said foreign companies which planned to invest in Turkey should involve local companies in their energy projects. 

“Any foreign company which will invest in Turkey’s renewable energy, nuclear energy or others should create a structure which will support local industries and companies,” Yıldız said Nov. 19, during his Paris visit to chair the ministerial meeting of the International Energy Agency (IEA). 

A Japanese-French alliance, led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s Areva, will build Turkey’s second nuclear power plant, with the main operator France’s GDF Suez, according to the deal.
 
Two French companies had expressed their desire to participate in Turkey’s second nuclear power plant project offer process, but Turkey rejected the attempts amid political disputes between the two countries stemming from a bill approved in the French Parliament making the denial of the Armenian “genocide” a punishable crime. 

The disagreements cooled down only after the French Constitutional Court overturned the bill and François Hollande replaced Nicholas Sarkozy as French president. French companies were then allowed to join forces with the Japanese firm for the bid.

“French firms are aware of our red lines,” Yıldız said.