Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board to open business councils in various states of USA

ISTANBUL

The Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) will soon adopt a state-basis model in its approach to the United States, establishing business councils in a number of states across the country rather than only in the capital Washington, DEİK President Ömer Cihad Vardan has told daily Dünya. 

Vardan said each state should be “seen as a separate country with its own characteristics,” but Turkey does not know most of them, focusing mainly on DC along with some of the largest states. 

“Our handicap with the U.S. market is our geographical distance. We do not know each other very well. We need to adopt a state-based approach in the U.S., as each state has its own characteristics like a separate country. As the DEİK, we should not be present only in Washington. We are working on this plan right now,” he said, quoted on June 19. 

“I want our board to get organized in various different states as soon as possible. I wish we had done this before now,” Vardan added. 

He also noted that the DEİK’s business councils worked to explain the reality of the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt around the world. 

“The DEİK has 135 business councils in 128 countries. Following the coup attempt, we immediately issued an 11-item action plan and started to implement it. At that time, some potential investors tended to postpone their investments in Turkey due to escalating terror attacks. Through our action plan, we tried to explain that the reality was different from what was seen from outside and things were going normally in Turkey. We are still continuing this initiative and we will soon launch a program through which we will compile and announce all these efforts,” Vardan said. 

He also stated that he foresaw great potential and opportunities for Turkish businesspeople in Iran and India in the upcoming period.