Zirve Eki - ISTANBUL REstate

Georg Wailand
Wirtschaftmagazin GEWINN, Yay›mc›
That is a good point. Good morning to everybody here in this event.
As Mr. Martin mentioned, I am publisher of GEWINN, the leading
economic magazine in Austria and we are organizing this event also
and we are also investing in Turkey. And as you mentioned, yesterday
we had a discussion and it was quite interesting. There is a lot of
money on the road for projects in Turkey from the European Union.
We got the information about the rules on how to get to this money
and what the European Union had to learn in cooperating with investors
in Turkey and so on. Infrastructure, but also tourism is a main point
and it was a difficult year for the real estate business. And you see
that it is astonishing how stable this event could survive and we are
optimistic for the year which will come. Between the European Union
and Turkey, the talks continue and there is a lot of money on the road
for projects in Turkey.
Oturum Baflkan› : Andreas Martin
Okay. Thank you very much. Michael Widmann, building bridges into a great future for the hotel and tourism industry is
one of your main activities, especially in countries like Russia and Ukraine. Now you are looking at Turkey , and there
might be an office in Istanbul soon. Between the European and the Asian side, here in Istanbul we have two bridges, is
this too narrow for international hotel operators and investors to enter the Turkish market?
Michael Widmann
PKF hotelexperts, Yönetici Ortak
For investors it is no problem, the traffic it is a big problem. I
always say Istanbul is the best and the worst city in the world
rolled into one. It is the most beautiful city in Europe for my taste
but in terms of traffic, I can tell you that it takes me five minutes
to walk to office everyday and probably to live here in Istanbul,
you have to spend a couple of hours every day in traffic jams. I
am not always sure whether the beauty of the city and the great
attractions are worth it. So if the traffic problem could be solved,
I think Istanbul would be the perfect city. Maybe some changes
into political landscape as well, but generally it is a great city and
I really admire its richness, I say in terms of investment, Turkey
is opening up to the world and the Turkish companies are
venturing into not only neighboring countries, but beyond; and
Turkey is taking a new role in the world whether some people
160 GYODER
Gayrimenkul Zirvesi 10
16-17 Haziran 2010
like it or not, but Turkey will certainly have significant influence
in most matters, maybe except football. It is a very sad story that
we have to watch the world cup without Turkish participation.