Murat Yalcintas

Although U.S.-Turkey political relations have reached somewhat of a boiling point over issues in northern Iraq, economic development engines in Istanbul and Atlanta have united to promote business ties between the two countries.

The president of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, the largest professional organization in Turkey with more than 260,000 active members and a database of more than 350,000 member companies, led a delegation of officials from the chamber to Atlanta Nov. 12 for a seminar on doing business in Turkey. 

Murat Yalcintas, the chamber's president, spoke at the luncheon seminar, which was hosted by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and also featured other speakers from the delegation, including Jeremy Keller, a former U.S. Department of Commerce official in Turkey, and Funda Gungor, a strategic planner for Istanbul-based Koc Holding.

The trip is the application of the Istanbul chamber’s decision to enter into a memorandum of understanding with U.S. chambers of commerce that will allow it to explore bilateral economic cooperation in many U.S. cities.

“As the biggest professional organization in Turkey, we are here to build the economic bridge between traditional allies, namely Turkey and the U.S.A., by encouraging the business environments to raise the bilateral trade and investment to a satisfactory and necessary level,” Mr. Yalcintas told GlobalAtlanta in an e-mail interview.

Turkey, a country of more than 70 million people, is ranked just below China and Russia in attracting foreign direct investment.  Legislative changes that streamlined the FDI process have helped the number skyrocket from $2.8 billion in 2004 to more than $20 billion in 2006, and the Istanbul chamber can help Americans tap into this trend, Mr. Yalcintas said in the e-mail.

He added that companies in Turkey are statutorily required to register with a chamber of commerce related to their business, making chambers “semi-public entities” that hold a lot of sway over economic activity in the country.  The Istanbul chamber fuels the “locomotive” of the Turkish economy, the Istanbul area, which is home to about 10 million people and accounts for 46 percent of the nation’s exports and 41 percent of its imports, according to Mr. Yalcintas.

One of the major hurdles that has kept companies in the U.S. from taking advantage of Turkey’s economic growth has been lack of awareness caused by geographical distance, Mr. Yalcintas said, but the advent of the Internet and the global economy should make distance a moot factor.

Another factor that could increase awareness is that Turkey, which is located at the strategic crossroads between Eastern Europe and the Middle East, is slowly moving toward membership in the European Union. 

The gradual accession the E.U. and the political stability and predictability that accompany it have led to staggering economic growth in Turkey over the past five years, a trend that U.S. businesspeople should welcome, Mr. Yalcintas said.

“The U.S. officially supports Turkey’s E.U. membership.  We do not believe that it will scare the U.S. companies away.  On the contrary, the stability and confident atmosphere brought by the E.U. membership prospect will attract them even more,” he said.

If political stability can remain constant, the Turkish economy will continue to improve, he added.  Although unemployment remains a priority issue, it has decreased drastically, and inflation has dropped from a rate of more than 70 percent in 2002 to 9.6 percent in 2006.

While he admitted that some of the aforementioned economic advantages may not be exclusive to Turkey, he emphasized the importance of Turkey’s location as a key portal to for U.S. companies going East. 

“Turkey stands out as an indispensable bridge between the East and the West and the only reliable spot that will bring the American industry closer to the Eastern markets as both supplier and consumer,” he said.

Mr. Yalcintas and the delegation will meet Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta chamber.

Mona Diamond, the honorary consul general of Turkey in Georgia, offered opening remarks at the luncheon, which also featured success stories of Georgia companies doing business in Turkey and culminated in a question-and-answer session.

According to Turkish business leaders in Atlanta, anywhere from 4,000-7,000 people of Turkish descent live in the metro Atlanta area. 

The Turkish American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeast United States is expected to hold its official opening sometime this month, and Turkish restaurants and cultural organizations are scattered throughout the city. 

For the full interview with Mr. Yalcintas, which covers Turkey’s economic growth, the Istanbul chamber and Turkey’s ascension to the E.U. in great detail, see the inset below.