Our Close Contact with Africa Gives Life to Opportunities for New Cooperations

After the pandemic entered our lives, we learned many lessons, we realized that our existence is interconnected in many ways, that it is not possible for us to be indifferent to what is happening around us, and each day, we experienced and understood that “our tears have the same colour, regardless of the colour of our face and eyes”, as the African proverb says.

As DEİK, we took part in the four-day official visit of our President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to Angola, Nigeria, and Togo in mid-October. Bilateral agreements were signed with these countries in order for strengthening our investment and commercial cooperation. We carried out business diplomacy activities in order to improve this cooperation and to make many investments with a win-win understanding in the continent.

At the Türkiye -Africa Economic and Business Forum (TABEF) that we held for the third time on October 21-22, we once again emphasized that we are stronger and that we find strength from this unity through the motto Stronger Together/ Together Stronger. Despite the pandemic, such high participation in the forum showed us how important Africa considers Türkiye.

Our effectiveness in the continent has considerably increased recently thanks to Türkiye’s contacts with Africa. DEİK/Türkiye-Africa Business Councils play a significant role in Türkiye’s African expansion strategy in our efforts to increase awareness of the economic potential of the African continent and to increase our bilateral cooperation. Published by us specifically for TABEF, in this issue, we focused on the current situation of Türkiye-Africa relations, the steps taken in bilateral relations, the reflections of TABEF andthe event, as the main cover subject. We made our cover interview with Berna Gözbaşı, Coordinating Chairperson of DEİK/Türkiye-Africa Business Councils.

Selin Sirer / Chief Editor