BURSA - Brazilian Ambassador in Ankara Brian Michael Fraser Neele visited the Bursa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BTSO) on Wednesday.
Neele who met with BTSO deputy chairmen Mahmut Yilmaz and Ali Hazir said that the biggest problem between the two countries was the lack of information about each other.
Neele stressed that the trade between Turkey and Brazil was quite insufficient despite their potential.
Noting that Brazil was eight times bigger than Turkey in terms of territory and had a 170 million population, and the gross national product per capita in both countries was equal, Neele said, ''so why don't we make more business? We are far away from each other but it is up to us to change it. We saw that durable goods producer Arcelik had signed a contract for joint production. So it would happen. We should forget about the distance, and we should at first know each other.''
Stressing that long term relations could not be developed only with exportation, Neele said that they encouraged development of other relations in addition to exportation between Brazil and private sector companies of other countries.
Noting that Turkey and Brazil had important industrial infrastructure and they focused on similar products but it was not a handicap, Neele stressed that the globalizing world had inclined towards joint production, adding cooperation should be encouraged between companies.
Meanwhile, BTSO Deputy Chairman Ali Hazir said that according to the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat statistics, total exports from Turkey to Brazil was 48 million U.S. dollars while total imports from Brazil was 233 million U.S. dollars in 2002. Hazir noted that trade volume between the two countries was insufficient, adding that Brazil was known in Turkey with its football players and Rio carnival.
(MS-AÖ) 11.06.2003