JEDDAH, 19 January 2004 — Turkey, which is waiting to join the European Union, yesterday rejected the idea of an Islamic common market.
“I don’t subscribe to the view of a common market either on the basis of religion or ethnicity,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting hosted by the Saudi Turkish Business Council at Albilad Hotel here yesterday.
“I’m afraid, such a proposal is not conducive to today’s environment of globalization. Any common market based on religion or ethnicity will not work. We’re an Islamic country and we follow Islamic values that include cooperating with other countries for the common good of all,” said the prime minister who heads a 265-member delegation to the Kingdom, including 160 businessmen attending the Jeddah Economic Forum. It is the biggest Turkish delegation ever to visit the Kingdom.
Saudi businessmen said the size of Turkey’s delegation indicated the importance it attached to the Kingdom, particularly in terms of economic and business relations.
“They are here to promote two-way investments,” said Abdul Rahman Al-Jeraisy, chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who presided at the meeting.
Outlining the close ties between the two countries, Al-Jeraisy said: “I’m sure our trade ties can expand further with a new investment climate emerging in Turkey.”
Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, vice chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, urged Turkish businessmen to access updated information from the chamber’s database.
At the meeting Erdogan repeated much of what he had said earlier in his keynote address at the Jeddah Economic Forum. In addition, he said the two countries must come together, discuss problems and solve them.
Referring to the difficulties of obtaining visas in both countries, he said the problem would have to be tackled at the Foreign Ministry level in both countries and that the difficulties must be addressed and simplified if the two countries were to conduct successful business.
He reminded Saudis that Turkey had liberalized its laws relating to foreign investment and that Turkish law did not now distinguish between a Turkish or a foreign investor.
The prime minister said his country was expanding trade ties with Syria, Iran and Jordan as well as with other neighboring countries in addition to the Kingdom. Turkey is focusing now more on the Middle East which has become an important region in the post-Iraq war world.
The prime minister said that in addition to Turkey seeking Saudi investment in food, textiles, information technology and engineering, he would add the health care sector. He pointed out Turkey’s world-class hospitals and their ability to provide world-class care.
