International Home Textile Magazine – April’17
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22<br />
NEWS<br />
HTE<br />
Turkish businessmen<br />
seek boost in trade<br />
relations with<br />
Turkish businessmen desire to boost trade between<br />
Turkey and Bahrain, chairman of the Turkey-Bahrain<br />
Business Council said. “We plan to visit Bahrain at<br />
the end of this month or early April. Our goal is to<br />
improve warm relations between the two countries, which<br />
will hopefully lead to an increase in mutual trade volume,”<br />
Muhammet Uğurcan Barman said at a Council meeting in<br />
the Turkish capital, Ankara.<br />
Bahrain<br />
Barman said that Bahrain was the only Gulf country which<br />
had a free trade agreement with the U.S. and Turkish companies<br />
could use Bahrain as a trade base. “In Bahrain, you<br />
can establish a company with 100% foreign capital. This<br />
shows that Bahrain has a higher standard of living and is<br />
more developed compared to other Gulf countries,” he added.<br />
Turkey’s exports to Bahrain stood at $193.2 million in<br />
2016, according to official data from the Turkish Statistical<br />
Institute (TurkStat). Imports from Bahrain amounted to<br />
$127.7 million at the same period. In the last 10 years,<br />
Turkey’s exports to Bahrain totaled $1.66 billion, while its<br />
imports stood at $1.28 billion.<br />
Ahmed bin Hindi, chairman of Bahraini-Turkish Joint<br />
Business Council, for his part, said that Bahrain provided<br />
significant opportunities for foreign investors as he described<br />
the country as the “gateway” to the Gulf region.<br />
Highlighting the “very good” relations between Turkey and<br />
Bahrain, Hindi noted that the bilateral relations had developed<br />
further following the recent visit of President Recep<br />
Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan visited Bahrain on February 12,<br />
as a part of Turkey’s drive to forge economic ties with Gulf<br />
nations, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.<br />
Hindi said that during Erdoğan’s visit, several memorandums<br />
of understanding were signed between the two countries<br />
in education, economy, energy and defense.<br />
Muhammet Uğurcan Barman<br />
He also noted that the trade volume between Bahrain and<br />
Turkey was on the rise, but it was not yet at the desired<br />
level, calling on Turkish businesses to invest in the country.<br />
“Turkish companies have the opportunity to use Bahrain<br />
as a hub.” “We suggest that you do not miss the train, and<br />
become one of the first companies to come to Bahrain,”<br />
he said.<br />
April 2017
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