Local production not of great importance: US envoy

Zeynep Bilgehan - KOCAELİ

AFP photo

U.S. Ambassador to Ankara John Bass has downplayed the importance of national borders on the way to economic development during his visit to a number of technology companies in the northwestern district of Gebze.

“Locally developed products or services have been of less importance in terms of ensuring economic development in today’s world,” he said, upon a question over whether any indigenous projects, such as “national ship” or “national airplane” projects, were of importance in terms of maintaining economic development. 

He said many products or services are not being produced by just one country or one company today. 

“In the world economy, especially in IT sector, many separate companies and countries move together as a part of an ecosystem. Local products or services have today been of less importance in terms of ensuring economic development. We have seen specialization in successful economies today. I think this is also growing in Turkey. For instance, Sikorsky will produce its helicopters in Turkey through a joint venture. Such partnerships make contribution to the economic growth and help Turkish industry to gain know-how,” he said.

Bass visited the innovation centers of General Electric in Gebze and then SANLAB Simulation and Ford Otosan in Istanbul, sharing his views about innovation during his tour. 

Saying that he preferred to visit these pioneering companies which aimed to enable Turkey to show progress in high technologies and make a great contribution to global innovation, he noted: “We have all seen the direct benefit of GE’s investment as newly graduated Turkish engineers have become an asset for GE’s global innovation infrastructure. I will then meet a number of Turkish entrepreneurs in SANLAB Simulation, who sold their software to American companies. And I will visit Ford Otosan, a Turkish-American project. These three companies work on different models, but they have many commons in making contribution to enable both Turkey and the U.S. to build closer ties,” he said. 

Bass also noted the trade volume between the two countries doubled in the last decade.