ULUSKON Plans to Visit Croatia in July to Improve Trade Relations and Sign New Investment Agreements

Nezaket Emine Atasoy, President of the International Investment and Business Confederation (ULUSKON), Advisor to the United Nations (UNOPS) and Advisor to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), attended the reception celebrating the Croatian National Day and Armed Forces Day in Ankara. During the reception, Ms. Atasoy congratulated Hrvoje Cvitanovic, Ambassador of Croatia to Ankara and met with him briefly and said that "on the occasion of the reception, I had the opportunity to congratulate Mr. Ambassador and to discuss ULUSKON's planned visit to Croatia in July this year in order to expand exports, imports and mutual investments between Turkey and Croatia and to increase cooperation between the two countries."

CROATIA-TURKEY RELATIONS CONTINUE TO DEVELOP POSITIVELY

ATASOY: "Our business people who are members of ULUSKON see the commercial and economic potential of Croatia as very important, and I agree with this. As you know, economic relations between the two countries have gained great momentum in recent years. As of last year, the trade volume between Turkey and Croatia was realized as 1 billion 150 million dollars, over 1 billion dollars for the first time. Moreover, Croatia is one of the rare countries where we have a positive trade balance. Last year, while our exports were 711 billion dollars, our imports were 439 million dollars. Now, as ULUSKON, we have developed our projects to further increase the export potential of our country to Croatia and neighboring countries. We will explain these to our interlocutors during our visit to Croatia with our business people. We have been discussing these issues with Mr. Ambassador Hrvoje Cvitanovic for several months. We will come together for the last time next week and finalize our visit program. They said that Croatian business people and bureaucrats of the Ministry of Trade are looking forward to Turkish business people in the presence of ULUSKON. Of course, I was pleased and honored as the President of ULUSKON on behalf of our country."

ATASOY said, "As you know, the interest of Turkish companies in Croatia has recently increased in the tourism, banking, energy, construction and textile sectors. In 2013, Croatia became a member of the European Union and we know that it is focusing on an economy focused on growth and employment increase. In this context, they need foreign investments. The Croatian Government invites Turkish investors to Croatia. They invited ULUSKON within this framework. We were pleased with this invitation and we rolled up our sleeves to fulfill this invitation with a group of business people who are our members. We want to evaluate the high potential of Croatia."

ULUSKON BUSINESSPEOPLE TO VISIT CROATIA IN JULY

ATASOY also talked about the sectors they will focus on during the visit: "We will visit Croatia with our ULUSKON sector representatives, which we have determined within the framework of our preliminary negotiations with Mr. Ambassador. Each of our sector representatives has made preliminary contact with their counterpart sector representative in Croatia. In this context, we have determined the investments and cooperation areas planned to be signed with our visit in July as follows:

- Establishment of a solar energy panel production and assembly facility,

- Establishment of solar energy production areas,

- Establishment of an energy production facility from domestic waste,

- Establishment of a curtain group production facility for hospitals, homes, hotels, dormitories and hostels,

- Establishment of a Turkish-Croatian Multinational Logistics Company to serve Europe in general and the Balkans in particular,

- Establishment of a food storage facility in Croatia for food trade with Europe, the Balkans and the UK,

- Maturation of joint investment opportunities in the field of agriculture,

- Joint work on the establishment of a pharmaceutical packaging facility."

Finally, ULUSKON President ATASOY said, "Croatia is building three large container schools with a capacity of 2 thousand students in the earthquake zone this year. When Mr. Ambassador mentioned this at the celebration reception, I was very happy on behalf of our children who were victims of the earthquake. I believe that our relations with Croatia, which attaches importance not only to commercial relations but also to humanitarian relations, should increase further. I expect that the visit we, as ULUSKON, will make with our business people in July will open new doors in our commercial and economic relations between the two countries. We are making efforts for this."