ISTANBUL (AA) - Germany's Federal Association of Medium-Sized Enterprises (BVMW) opened on Friday a permanent representation in Turkish commercial hub of Istanbul.
German Consul General in Istanbul Reiner Moeckelmann hosted the inauguration ceremony also attended by BVMW Vice-President Jochen Leonhardt.
During the ceremony, Moeckelmann said, ''negotiations (between Turkey and the EU) will be launched on October 3rd despite all hesitations. And, we know negotiations will last long. I hope some matters expressed by the recent referenda will not be influential on negotiations.''
On the other hand, Leonhardt said, ''we support Turkey's EU membership, and we expect we will improve our economic relations.''
According to information received from sources, BVMW has an important place in Germany economy, and employs 4.3 million people.
BVMW Permanent Representation aims at creating cooperation platforms for Turkish and German small and medium scale enterprises, and helping Turkish enterprises open to Europe and German enterprises open to Turkey.
2005-06-10