Turkey wants to build its own passenger jet, says deputy PM

CHICAGO

Turkish Deputy PM Ali Babacan speaks at a press meeting in the United States after week-long talks on the occasion of Turkey Investment Week. AA photo

Turkey wants to build its own medium-range aircraft and will sign a deal with a company to do so in the near future, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has said.

The government was planning to cooperate with an aircraft company to work on an existing platform, rather than building a new jet from scratch, Babacan said Oct. 26. “There are four firms,” Babacan told journalists while in the United States after week-long talks on the occasion of Turkey Investment Week.

“We want our engineers in Turkey to contribute; we want them to work in our sight [in Turkey],” he said.

Babacan said there were expectations of a competitive environment as the draft project drew nearer to realization.

Babacan arrived in the U.S. last week with Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, chairman of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), and 40 business leaders for a series of visits in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago.

Turkey values its increasing trade relations with the U.S., Babacan said, describing the efforts to effect better cooperation since a strategic partnership deal in 2009 as “sowing seeds.”

US firms have big business capacity

“You never know when such efforts will bear fruit. It’s like sowing seeds, and there will be a time for harvest. Amid all the talk of crises and debt ceilings, the U.S. remains the world’s biggest economy. The companies here have an immense business capacity,” he said.

Babacan also said he welcomed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s plan to open an office in Turkey.
Hisarcıklıoğlu said last week that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will open a representative office in Istanbul, while an American-Turkish Business Council will be established to develop more economic and trade relations between the two countries

“We’ll make a detailed deal with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce soon. They will open a representative office in Istanbul. Then their members will undertake lobby activities for the inclusion of the Turkish side in the planned Transatlantic Agreement on Trade and Investment between the U.S. and the EU,” he said.

An American-Turkish Business Council will be established under the framework of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he said. “This will enable the two countries’ businesspeople to establish closer ties.

Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent will head this organization, through which companies from both countries will make mutual visits to develop cooperation,” he said.