ANKARA - Industry and Trade Minister Ali Coskun received on Tuesday Dr. Herwig Schloegl, the deputy secretary general of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and an accompanying delegation.
Speaking after the meeting, Coskun said that December, 2004 was a very important date for Turkey as negotiations could start with EU and that many meetings and congresses would be held in the year 2004.
Coskun said that firstly NATO Conference, later another meeting in which media owners would attend would be held in Istanbul next year, adding that OECD Ministers Conference would also be held in June, 2004. Noting that issues such as technology transfer, opening of small and medium scale enterprises to world markets would be taken up during the meeting, Coskun said that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would open the meeting and Turkey attributed great importance to OECD Ministers Conference.
OECD Deputy Secretary General Herwig Schloegl recalled that the same conference was held in Italy four years ago, adding that the OECD Ministers Conference had a global character. Noting that economic and social developments would be taken up in the meeting, Schloegl stated that it was possible to learn many things from the vision of Turkey about its policy of small and medium scale enterprises (SMSEs). Schloegl said that not only OECD member states, but also non-member countries would attend the conference, adding that 54 countries attended the conference in Italy.
Schloegl added that there were totally 300 million SMSEs in the world and that they provided employment for 3.5 billion people.
(ÖŞ-AY) 18.11.2003