EU process halted, TOBB president says

ENİS TAYMAN ISTANBUL / Radikal

TOBB chairman says Turkey should enliven the EU candidacy process.

Turkey’s process of European Union candidacy has come to a halt according to Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, head of the country’s largest business organization.

"We are deeply concerned that the process has halted for political reasons," the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) chairman Hisarcıklıoğlu said the evening of April 3 during a meeting with Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Portas in Ankara. 

“We should enliven the process and the support of Portugal is very important for this,” he said. Due to the customs union goods can circulate easily, but the people who sell or transport them cannot because of visa [problems].”

Hisarcıklıoğlu and Portas later signed a deal of cooperation along with Turkey’s Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT) chairman İlker Aycı and his Portuguese counterpart Pedro Reis. 

In a separate meeting in Ankara yesterday, Hisarcıklıoğlu said public offerings in Turkey would help firms institutionalize. Firms wanting a long life should institutionalize, he said at the “Campaign for Public Offerings,” meeting hosted by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ASO). 

Vedat Akgiray, president of Turkey’s Capital Markets Board (SPK) said Turkey’s stock exchange market promised a three-fold capacity compared with its current volume. ASO Chairman Nurettin Özdebir and Turkey’s Small and Medium Industry Development Organization President Mustafa Kaplan also addressed the audience at the meeting.