Turkey's President To Take Up Investments And Foreign Trade In Japan

ANKARA - The most important topics that Turkey's President Abdullah Gul will debate during his formal visit to Japan are ways to increase foreign trade with Japan and draw more Japanese investments in Turkey, Turkish authorities said on Wednesday.
President Gul is actually paying a formal visit to Japan as the guest of Japanese Emperor Akihito. He is being accompanied by State Minister Mehmet Simsek.
The visit is important as it also includes talks with Japanese business federation KEIDANREN, Japanese external trade organization JETRO, and Japan bank for international cooperation JBIC.
Turkish officials will brief KEIDANREN executives on recent developments in Turkey's economy and business opportunities, and ask giant Japanese companies including Toyota, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Itochu, Maribari, Mitsui, Isuzu and Socitzu to make more investments in Turkey.
The Turkish delegation will also ask some Japanese companies, investing in automotive and electronics industries in Europe, to shift their investments to Turkey.
Japan, which is the second biggest economy in the world and the biggest economy in the Asia-Pacific region, is also the most important direct foreign investor country in the world.
This country is mainly making direct investments in other countries that contribute to employment, instead of buying companies or merging with companies of other countries.
Japan's direct investments in foreign countries were around 73 billion USD in 2007, and those in Turkey were 2 billion USD.
The Japanese investments in Turkey are expected to reach 4 billion USD at the end of this visit.
Actually, there are about 60 Japanese companies operating in Turkey.
President Gul will meet Emperor Akihito; Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda; Satsuki Eda, the President of the House of Councillors in Japan; and Yohei Kono, the speaker of Japanese House of Representatives; in Tokyo. Gul will also attend a meeting of the Turkish-Japanese Business Forum.
(BRC-MS)
(ECO)