Turkish PM says 3 criterias for sustainable trade

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks during the opening ceremony of the APRCE. AA Photo

Commerce needs three conditions to be sustainable: justice, open roads, and global security, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during the opening of the Asia-Pacific Retailers Convention and Exhibition (APRCE)on Sept. 23, being held between Sept. 23 and 26.

“Injustice, massacres, and coup d’états close the paths of trade. A world in which children are being killed by chemical weapons will damage prosperity as well as conscience. That is why globalization of conscience and opinion, and gaining new economic and commercial dimensions are necessary for our all futures,” Erdoğan said.

He stated that there were constant conditions that assure the sustainability of commerce: The first condition is that countries should be just and that justice should be globalized. The second condition is that routes should be open and not blocked. The third and final condition is the necessity of peace, security and stability – both locally and globally. “If we want to globalize commerce, we have to fight to prevent these conditions from disappearing. I mean, while we globalize our brands, we also have to globalize democracy, opinion and particularly consciences,” Erdoğan said.

The prime minister added his opinion that the main cause of many global problems was unchecked ambition. “When you look at climate change, environmental pollution, eco-system corruption, drought, and epidemics, you will see that the reason behind them is ambition. Particularly, when you analyse the most recent economic crisis, you’ll see that it has its roots in the ambition of endless wining and endless spending,” he said.

Erdoğan said the most important issue was to decide whether the majority of humanity should serve imperial sentiments, or whether it should try to make sharing and solidarity dominate in the world, adding that the 21st century should become the “century of sharing and solidarity.”

Erdoğan recommended that the APRCE should be transformed into a non-governmental organization structure and work on this topic, stressing that they should take steps to this end during the 16th convention being held in Istanbul.

More ‘made in Turkey’ products

Meanwhile, speaking at the same event, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said the government wanted to see more “Made in Turkey” tagged products in the Asia-Pacific market, which has a trade volume of $7 trillion.

Çağlayan particularly highlighted that around 7,000 retailers serving 3.5 billion people at 600,000 sale points had participated in the convention.

He said they supported firms that aimed to increase the trade volume between the Asia-Pacific and Turkey to $200 billion in the next decade, and noted that Turkish companies had reached 92 different countries.