Mehmet Şimşek to meet with fund managers in US

ISTANBUL

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek will meet with U.S. fund managers and executives of the credit rating agencies in New York on April 22 as part of the Türkiye Investment Conference, says Murat Özyeğin, the head of the Türkiye-U.S. Business Council (TAİK).

This will be the 14th edition of the event organized in collaboration with Citi, Özyeğin told journalists.

The American-Turkish Conference (ATC) will be held in Washington between May 9 and 10, Özyeğin added.

He noted that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is scheduled to pay a visit to the U.S. to meet with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.

During his visit to the U.S., Erdoğan is expected to attend roundtable meetings with American investors, according to Özyeğin.

At the 39th edition of the ATC, a series of panels with the participation of top officials from the two countries will be held focused on politics, defense, energy, digitalization and economy, he said, adding that the last Türkiye Investment Conference event of the year will be held on Sept. 23-14, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

At this event, Erdoğan is expected to meet with executives of Fortune 100 companies, while Şimşek and Trade Minister Ömer Bolat will hold talks with American fund and portfolio managers, Özyeğin said.

Meanwhile, more than 100 American companies will attend Trade Winds, which will take place in Istanbul on May 13-15.

Trade Winds is the largest U.S. government-led trade mission and business development forum.

Özyeğing recalled that Türkiye and the U.S. aim to increase the bilateral trade volume to $100 billion.

The improvement achieved in the relationship between the two countries offers to strengthen economic partnership, he said.

The bilateral trade rose to $31 billion last year and the U.S., with $14 billion in exports, became the second-largest export market after Germany, Özyeğin noted.

Exports to the U.S. have risen around 60 percent in the past five years, according to Özyeğin.

According to the data from the Türkiye Exporters’ Assembly (TİM), Türkiye’s exports to the U.S. grew 8.3 percent year-on-year to $3.2 billion in the first three months of 2024.

U.S. investments in Türkiye have reached $14.3 billion, while Turkish investments in the U.S. amounted to around $9.7 billion, said Özyeğin, adding that there are more than 2,000 companies in our country with U.S. capital.