TEPAV Director Sak: “Intra-regional Trade Becoming Increasingly Important” Delivering a speech at the 25th annual conference of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) representing members from 27 countries, Sak stressed the increasing importance of intra-regional trade.
ISTANBUL - TEPAV Director Prof. Dr. Güven Sak stressed that Turkey is becoming the industrial hub of its region and maintained that the next steps to take in this regard were the diversification of the value chains to the region to ensure regional integration and increasing connectivity. Sak in this context underlined the key importance of steps in the field of intra-regional trade.
Delivering a speech at the 25th annual conference of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) on March 8, 2011 Tuesday in Istanbul, Sak talked about win-win solutions for connecting Europe to Asia. Commenting on the spillover effect among the countries of the region, Sak highlighted the insufficiency of national steps. TEPAV Director Sak stated that efforts to this end cannot be expected only from the public sector and touched upon the increasing role for the private-public partnership models in improving intra-regional trade. Underlining that standardized border crossings are crucial, he gave brief information about the efforts of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) to modernize custom gates of Turkey. Sak went on to say that TOBB's ultimate target was to ensure a fully integrated border management and that a pilot project was being implemented with Georgia. In addition, he emphasized the importance of establishing fully integrated transport corridors over the Caucasus.
Touching upon the significance of cross-border cooperation in design and finance infrastructure investments, Sak stated that projects to create access to new markets were vital. Prof. Dr. Sak maintained that South Asia started to provide new export opportunities for Turkey and in this context addressed the Istanbul - Islamabad railway project built upon cross-border finance. He explained that the project was a product of the Istanbul Forum between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey to which TEPAV contributed and added that the total capital cost of the project was estimated to be 650 million USD.
25th annual conference of CACCI organized in different member countries each year was held in Istanbul on March 6-8, 2011 with the theme "Asian Business: Re-setting Priorities amid Shifting World Economic Balance". The conference inaugurated with the opening speeches by The President of the Republic of Turkey H.E. Abdullah Gül, TOBB President and conference host M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and CACCI President Benedicto V. Yujuico. After the opening speeches, TEPAV Director Güven Sak made a presentation. In the scope of the conference program, a working dinner was held with the participation of Foreign Minister of Turkey H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu and businessmen from CACCI member countries.
