Unaffected by tension, TUSKON promotes Turkish economy


Date posted: January 27, 2014

ANKARA
Despite continuing government pressure and a smear campaign against Turkey’s largest Islamic group, the Hizmet movement, a leading business confederation affiliated with Hizmet is working even harder than before to benefit the country’s ailing economy.

The Hizmet movement, a volunteer-based grassroots movement working around the world, particularly in the field of education, which aims to spread interfaith dialogue and is inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has recently come under attack from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This was followed by a defamation campaign in the pro-government media targeting Hizmet.

The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) has had its share of these provocative media reports. Regarding the recent media reports criticizing TUSKON’s lobbying efforts for Turkish firms abroad, TUSKON President Rıza Nur Meral told Sunday’s Zaman that allegations against TUSKON “do not make sense” and that the confederation has always supported Turkish businessmen who want to branch out into global markets. “We will continue our support [for Turkish entrepreneurs],” Meral added.

The size of investment and trade agreements created thanks to the Turkey-World Trade Bridge, a semi-annual trade and investment summit organized by TUSKON since 2006, has reached $30 billion. These summits establish trade bridges between small and medium-sized Turkish enterprises and world markets thousands of kilometers away from Turkey.

The latest Turkey-World Trade Bridge summit, an eight-year-old event on its way to becoming an internationally recognized summit, opened its doors to visitors from around the world on Nov. 26 of last year and hosted 1,343 foreign and 800 local firms with an estimated 25,000 business-to-business transactions. The TUSKON summit is sponsored by the Economy Ministry and the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM).

Meral stressed that at the 19th summit held in November, companies inked contracts worth $500 million. “The difference of the last summit is that Turkey has started to promote not only goods but brands this time. When we started to organize these summits, Turkey used to market our products only, but now we promote our brands and make franchise agreements with foreign partners,” said Meral.

TUSKON has organized 19 World Trade Bridges between 2006 and 2013, and around 70,000 businessmen from Turkey and all around the world have had a chance to come together to establish trade bridges at these events.

A nongovernmental and non-profit umbrella organization for seven business federations, 211 business associations and more than 55,000 entrepreneurs from all over the country, TUSKON is the most effective business group representing Turkey abroad.

It was set up in 2005 and has concentrated on the economic and social development of Turkey. It has four foreign representation offices, in Brussels, Washington, Moscow and Beijing, and partner organizations in a further 140 different countries. It now boasts the strongest domestic and international business network in Turkey.

The confederation aspires to offer solutions for Turkey’s political, social and economic issues as well. “In serving our goals, TUSKON’s activities have turned out to be huge steps towards making our members global players in today’s rapidly changing economic structure. The unique aspect of the Trade Bridge concept is its structure to bring together domestic and international businesses and help them to develop one-to-one relationships,” the official website of the organization notes.

Source: Todays Zaman , January 26, 2014


Related News

DUTCH MP’S FURIOUS ABOUT PRESSURE FROM TURKISH AMBASSADOR

Parties in the Tweede Kamer – the lower house of Dutch parliament – are furious about statements the Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands made pressuring the Dutch government to help hunt down supporters of the Gulen-movement. Numerous parliamentarians expressed their annoyance to NU.nl.

The Remarkable Scale of Turkey’s “Global Purge”

The global purge further erodes hopes that the end of the Cold War and expansion of the liberal order would result in democratic consolidation. The global purge is a threat not just to the Turkish diaspora but to the rule of law everywhere.

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

Yusuf Özmen, a cancer patient who has been sentenced to 8 years, 9 months in prison due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement, has recently been sent back to prison after the supreme court of appeals upheld the prison sentence.

Kazakh leader heads to Turkey to explain decision over Gulen schools

The official announcement did not provide any details about the visit, but Nazarbayev is expected to smooth over any disagreements between the two Turkic countries following the failed coup. The Kazakh-Turkish schools employ 1,124 teachers, of whom 1,030 are Kazakh citizens (91.7%) and 94 are Turkish citizens (8.3%).” Kazakhstan also has the Suleyman Demirel University, opened in Almaty in 1996.

Who is Behind the Pennsylvania Protests?

Fethullah Gulen had suggested that the protestors should be listened to and not be treated harshly. This was an expression to show that the people’s voice and requests at Gezi should not be rejected.

Six Turks arrested in Kosovo over Gulen links extradited to Turkey

Six Turkish nationals arrested in Kosovo over links to schools financed by the Fethullah Gulen movement that Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup have been extradited to Turkey.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Religious leaders pray for world peace at meeting of civilizations

Saving the soul of Turkey [amid the graft probe]

Latest practices of AK Party gov’t raise fears of ‘one-party state’

A peace and dialogue conference in Kyrgyzstan

Turkey dismisses another 330 academics, brings total to 7,316

Reps urge Federal Govt to intervene in Nigerian students’ detention in Turkey

Bulgarian producer introduces his fourth documentary on Fethullah Gulen

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News