Turkish minister invites Spanish firms for large businesses

Spain should see Turkey as a springboard, and vice versa, for trading in each other’s regions, the Turkish economy minister said yesterday.

“Turkey and Spain have become indispensible allies,” Zafer Çağlayan said during his speech at the Spain-Turkey Investment and Cooperation Summit in Madrid.

“Turkey is the second largest in the construction industry in the world, and Turkey would like to share advantages it has gained in this industry in Africa, Middle East and Caucasus with Spanish businessmen,” Çağlayan said.

Turkey would make significant energy, health, infrastructure and other investments and many Turkish firms were investing in Spain and more than 400 Spanish companies had investments in Turkey, according to the minister.

Çağlayan said Spanish companies would continue their investments in high-speed train system in Turkey, and Spanish companies that had submitted bids for Marmaray, a rail project that passes under Istanbul’s Bosphorus, were advantageous.

Commenting on Turkey’s European Union membership bid, Çağlayan said the union was hypocritical toward Turkey. With its current structure, Turkey, when it joins the EU, will shoulder the EU’s burden, not be a burden on it, he said. He thanked Spain for its support on the issue and added that, “Turkey will bring power to the Union.”

Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organization (CEOE) Chairman Juan Rosell, meanwhile, said his country had a special plan to develop relations with Turkey between 2012 and 2014, stressing that they attached great importance to the Turkish market.

Francisco Gonzalez Rodriguez, chairman of Spanish BBVA bank – which bought 25 percent share of Turkey’s Garanti Bank in 2010 – said Turkey was one of the 10 countries where the world’s highest economic growth was recorded, adding that Turkey was one of the most important countries in Europe as a big and young market.

Turkey had a “well-disciplined” economy as well as “world’s best financing system,” Rodriguez said.

Political and economic relations between Turkey and Spain were on the highest level, Spanish Prime Ministry Economy Office Director Javier Valles said, adding that he believed that they should encourage a strategic partnership between the two countries.