Date posted: May 17, 2016

More Turkish investors have expressed their interest to invest in education, the real estate, construction and manufacturing sectors in Ghana.

The President of the Ghana-Turkey Cooperation and Development Association (TUDEC), Mr Yusuf Temizkan, says prospective investors would be arriving in the country within the year to inject their capital into the country’s economy.

He said it was through the business trips to Ghana and business trade fairs in Turkey organised by TUDEC that attracted hundreds of Turkish business people to come to Ghana to learn about business opportunities.

Political stability

Mr. Temizkan said the investors were attracted to Ghana because of the country’s political stability, peaceful coexistence among the various religious faiths and the hospitable nature of Ghanaians.

Additionally, he said the would-be Turkish investors had received favourable feedback from Turkish investors already operating in Ghana.

“They see Ghana as a very good place to invest because of government policies. Ghana is a democratic country and nobody can harm you as long as you stick to the laws. They say Ghanaians are very friendly and that Ghana is much secured for their families and children in comparison with the neighbouring countries,” he said.

Ghana’s economy

Mr. Temizkan, who is also the General Manager of the Galaxy International School, said TUDEC was interested in supporting the growth of the Ghanaian economy and creating job opportunities for the country’s teeming youth.

He said TUDEC was hopeful that the investors would inject the needed capital to support the country’s socio-economic development.

“More people from Turkey are coming and we hope that they will come and invest in Ghana and create opportunities for Ghanaians,” he said.

Mr. Temizkan said it was in that light that TUDEC organised business trips to Ghana and Turkey as well as business trade fairs in Turkey.

He said the business trips and trade fairs offered the opportunity to Ghanaian businessmen and their Turkish counterparts to establish business contacts.

Again, Mr. Temizkan said TUDEC organised a business forum in 2012 for President John Dramani Mahama and Ghanaian business delegation in Turkey, in collaboration with TUSKON, one of the largest business associations in Turkey.

Other activities of TUDEC

In 2015, TUDEC in collaboration with the National Peace Council (NPC) organised an international dialogue conference at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), on the theme: “Love and Tolerance; Peaceful Coexistence in Diversity.”

Speakers at the peace conference Organized by TUDEC and National Peace Council.

Chaired by the Chairman of the NPC, the Most Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante, the conference was attended by distinguished individuals from different walks of life, Muslim and Christian clerics ,the Minister of State, Rashid Pelpuo, National Chief Imam of Ghana, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, Spokesperson for National Chief Imam of Ghana, Sheikh Armiyawo, Rt.Rev.Dr.Sylvanus Daniel Torto-Bishop Anglican Diocese of Accra, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, the Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer- Buckle and Professors from Turkey, Nigeria and USA .

The conference was inspired by the book of a prominent Turkish Muslim scholar, opinion leader, poet, prolific teacher and author, Fethullah Gulen.

Speeches at the conference were captured in a book form edited by the Most Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante titled: “Love and Tolerance”.

The book was launched at a program chaired by Commandant/Executive Director of KAIPTC,Maj. Gen. OB Akwa at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra in March, this year.

The association is also engaged in different Aid and relief organizations like offering scholarships to needy students, provision of boreholes in rural areas and the donation of assorted food items and meat during Eidu-ul-Adha, Eid-ul-Fitr and Christmas festivities.

About TUDEC

TUDEC was established in 2011 to promote education and trade activities between Ghana and Turkey and also to offer social and humanitarian services such as aid, relief and dialogue activities in Ghana.

Activities of TUDEC are to fight against society’s three greatest enemies that are ignorance, poverty and disunity based on the philosophy of a Turkish Muslim scholar and author, Fethullah Gulen. He asserts that education, work-capital, aid, relief and unity can combat these enemies respectively.

To defeat ignorance through education, he suggests the opening of schools that serve all people, regardless of their race, colour or faiths. It is in these schools that students of all cultures are taught universal values and ethics along with modern sciences.

In these schools also, students would have a chance to learn how to coexist peacefully in diversity and cultivate the idea of tolerance which is the remedy for today’s problems stemming from the abuse of religious, cultural, and ethnic differences.

Galaxy intl school offers scholarsip packages to students from all over the country every year as a way of giving back to society.

Fethullah Gulen is of the view that poverty can be eliminated through work and the possession of capital, justly deployed in the service of others.

He makes the effort to encourage people to tackle this problem on a larger scale, and inspires people from different countries to participate voluntarily in aid and relief activities and business organizations.

Finally, to eradicate the last enemy of humanity, which he describes as internal disunity and separatism, he suggested a solution through dialogue and tolerance.

“As the world is gradually becoming a small village, nations should come together and establish unity so that universal targets can be achieved by people all over the world.”

He believes internal disunity and separatism are vanquished by striving through forbearance, tolerance and dialogue based on the idea of acceptance and love.

The Hizmet (Service) Movement

Inspired by these ideas, participants of Hizmet movement (Hizmet means service), a global transnational civil society movement, described by Gulen himself as “a movement of people united around high human values,” has opened thousands of schools, hospitals, universities, aid and relief foundations and dialogue centres in about 160 countries.

It is a faith-inspired, non-political, cultural and educational movement whose basic principles stem from Islam’s universal values, such as love of the creation, sympathy for the fellow human, compassion, and altruism.

The movement is not a governmental or state sponsored organization.

It focuses on the betterment of the individual toward a positive change in society.

The movement is distinguished for its support of democracy, its openness to globalization, its progressiveness in integrating tradition with modernity, and its humanistic outlook.

Source: Citi FM Online , May 14, 2016

Tags: Education | Ghana | Hizmet (Gulen) movement | Hizmet and business | Hizmet-inspired schools | Peacebuilding |