ISTANBUL - The president of a major Turkish business association said Thursday existing problems should not take away Turkey from its EU membership process.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Turkish-Austrian Business Council meeting in Istanbul, the president of the executive board of Turkish Industrialists`s and Businessmen`s Association (TUSIAD) Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag said that Turkey`s EU process should be re-activated with rational policies by both Turkey and the EU.
"Although Turkish-Austrian commercial relations increased in the recent past, the relations have not reached the potential level," Yalcindag said.
"The bilateral trade volume between Turkey and Austria was two billion USD in 2007. Turkey`s exports to Austria were worth 751 million USD while imports from Austria were worth 1.28 billion USD in the same period," Yalcindag said.
"We hope that the current visit of Austrian President Heinz Fischer to Turkey will help the two countries reach the potential and be a turning point in developing investments," Yalcindag said.
"Turkey`s EU membership is the most vital development in the history of the Republic of Turkey", Yalcindag noted.
"The Austrian public opinion looks at Turkey`s EU membership unfavorably. By showing realities, eliminating fears, and convincing the Austrian public on the benefits the EU would gain by Turkey`s membership, we can change the status quo," Yalcindag also said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a message he sent to the meeting, "I believe that Austrian people`s point of view about Turkey`s EU membership will change in the course of time. An increase in mutual visits and development of dialogue will have a positive impact to this end."
"Our trade volume with Austria surpassed 2 billion USD in 2007. When we consider that both countries have foreign trade amounting more than 200 billion USD, this amount is far from the desired level. We con work together to increase our trade volume up to 5 billion USD by 2010," he said.
Erdogan underlined importance of Turkey`s role in Europe`s energy security. Turkey has become a central and transit country in energy in its region. We are willing to contribute to Europe`s energy security. We have already taken a tangible step to become the EU`s fourth main artery of natural gas with the Turkey-Greece natural gas pipeline."
"The direct global investments in Turkey amounted to 60 billion USD in the years of 2002 and 2007. Austrian investments stand at 1.5 billion USD. Our governments should embolden businessmen to increase mutual investments," Erdogan added.
(SOL-UK-AÖ)