WE WILL CARRY OUT OUR ACTIVITIES WITH STRONGER STEPS

We believe that we can realize our goal of 10 billion dollars of joint trade volume between Japan and Türkiye in cooperation

Türkiye-Japan relations have gained momentum as of this fall. Within the scope of the visit of Nishimura Yasutoshi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan to Istanbul, we participated in the Türkiye-Japan Business Forum organized by JETRO Istanbul on September 5, 2023, with the participation of Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat, Minister of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye. We organized the Türkiye- Japan Working Dinner hosted by DEİK/Türkiye-Japan Business Council, followed by the 26th Türkiye-Japan Business Council Joint Meeting in Izmir on October 10, 2023, with the business delegation of the Japan Business Federation Keidanren, the counterpart organization of our business council.

As a result of our meeting, we signed a joint statement in cooperation with DEİK/Türkiye-Japan Business Council and Keidanren. In terms of our bilateral trade relations during this period, the decision to initiate negotiations on the Türkiye-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement at the technical level within the scope of the visit of the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura Yasutoshi to Türkiye and the developments towards the organization of the Türkiye-Japan Energy Forum, which was announced together with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Türkiye, have been extremely pleasing.

In 2024, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the start of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Türkiye and Japan. On this occasion, we will continue our efforts both as DEİK/Türkiye-Japan Business Council and with the contributions of other valuable organizations of our business world in order to reach our joint trade volume target of 10 billion dollars, and we will carry out our activities with stronger steps with the support of our Turkish and Japanese stakeholders.

Within the scope of the 26th Türkiye-Japan Business Council Joint Meeting, we see the potential for cooperation between the two countries in a very comprehensive framework such as energy systems, construction sector and mega projects, cooperation in third countries, medical technologies and joint investments in the health sector, digitalization, automotive, electric vehicles and e-mobility, disaster prevention and mitigation technologies, agriculture and food, circular economy, defense industry, transportation, critical minerals, machinery, iron and steel, which we discussed together with Keidanren. As mentioned in our joint statement, DEİK/Türkiye- Japan Business Council and Keidanren will continue to play a constructive role in strengthening the cooperation between Turkish and Japanese companies. In today’s world where new generation trade agreements are being signed, it is important for the development of bilateral trade and investment relations between Türkiye and Japan to ensure balanced bilateral trade, strengthening the investment climate, and a freer and smoother movement of capital, labor, information, and products. In this context, as DEİK/ Türkiye-Japan Business Council and Keidanren, we look forward to the completion and entry into force of the negotiation process of the comprehensive Türkiye-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

We believe that this will make a significant contribution to a more balanced trade and investment relationship between the two countries. In addition to the automotive, construction, and technical consultancy and industrial partnerships, which have traditionally produced highly successful projects, we would like to see more Turkish and Japanese business cooperation in the fields of high technology and entrepreneurship in the coming period.

In this context, with the support of the JETRO Istanbul Office and the Entrepreneurship Foundation, we organized a webinar for the Japanese business world to explain the developing startup ecosystem in Türkiye. In the coming period, we aim to continue our initiatives to further increase the interest of Japanese companies in the emerging entrepreneurship ecosystem. We believe that joint projects can be realized with Japanese companies in Central Asia, Africa, and Ukraine, where the Turkish business world is successfully operating. We know that the Japanese credit support and international cooperation organizations Japan Bank for International Cooperation JBIC and Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA are ready to cooperate in this regard.

The ongoing imbalance in terms of mutual import and export figures will be brought into a more balanced structure through joint steps to be taken in sectors with high potential in terms of added value and through joint investments and efforts to be realized with the principle of “win-win”, as Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi emphasized in Turkish in his speech. Our joint trade volume is expected to exceed 6 billion dollars by the end of 2023 and we believe that we can reach our 10 billion dollar target in a short time by producing and working together with our Japanese friends.