Daily News inspires Dutch prime minister

ISTANBUL

Turkish growth is impressive, Dutch PM Mark Rutte says in Istanbul. AA photo

Visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte opened his speech at the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) yesterday with a quote from a recent Hürriyet Daily News column by Gila Benmayor which he found helpful in explaining sustainable growth.

“It was a column prepared for this seminar,” Rutte said, while addressing Turkish and Dutch businessmen.
Benmayor’s article focused on the activities of Unilever in Turkey, a company that Rutte said he himself had worked for 10 years.

The firm was after sustainable growth at that time, Rutte said. “I can see now that they have achieved this.” An executive was quoted as saying, “100 percent of the tea and vegetables we buy here will be coming from sustainable resources by 2015,” Rutte recalled. Consumers also have responsibilities about sustainability and there are important developments in Turkey regarding sustainability, he said.

İTO Chairman Murat Yalçıntaş said he considered yesterday’s meeting a continuation of a business mission in May to the Netherlands headed by President Abdullah Gül, adding that, “What touched me most was that President Rutte came to the meeting [in Holland] by his bike.”

Turkey and Holland celebrate their 400th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year. Dutch direct investments to Turkey will exceed $16 billion by the end of this year, Turkish Deputy PM Ali Babacan said at a meeting with Rutte yesterday, continuing that, “Our total trade volume reached $7.3 billion last year,” and that he found that was beneath their potential.