ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkish companies remain undeterred by last Sunday’s deadly attack in Erbil, which may cause minor project delays but will not affect overall investments and trade, said the head of the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON).
Rizanur Meral said that, “The incidents in Erbil didn’t create any concern among the Turkish businessmen. Some of them might postpone their appointments in Erbil but the investments are not suspended in any way.”
“The recent explosions in Erbil won’t interrupt our trade relations with the region,” added Meral.
TUSKON, an umbrella organization of seven business confederations over Turkey with 50,000 members, is mainly working to facilitate Turkish investments abroad.
Meral noted that two important projects, the constructions of the Hilton and the Sheraton hotels is continuing, and that restaurants and other work places remain open and unaffected by Sunday’s attack, in which 12 attackers and guards were killed, but there were no civilian deaths.
Meral said problems caused due to the attacks were minor.
“Because of the security measures taken at the entrance of Erbil the trucks are delayed at the border. Therefore, the eight-day journey between Antep-Erbil-Antep now takes 11 days,” Meral said.
“The cost increases due to the delays forced some companies to head for other markets, but we think this is only a temporary problem. Only a very limited number of companies might leave the market because of the situation,” he said.
Erbil has been promoted as the new Dubai of the Middle East and is considered as the safest place in the region by Turkish business circles.
With Turkish businesses eager to seize opportunities in the oil-boom economy, it has become almost fashionable among Turkish businessmen to invest in the Kurdistan Region.
Of the 2,241 companies from 78 countries registered in the Kurdistan Region, about 50 percent are Turkish. Ankara-Erbil trade is currently around $8 billion, and expected to climb to a whopping $20 billion in 10 years. Moreover, Turkish construction sector investments in the region hit $4.3 billion in 2012.
At the Habur border gate between Turkey and Kurdistan, 2,500 vehicles enter and exit daily, and one-fourth of the containers departing from the Mersin harbor are bound for the autonomous Kurdish enclave. More than 12,000 Turkish nationals are currently working in the Kurdistan Region, which remains the favored destination for a quarter of the Turkish workers going abroad for employment.
In addition, 80 percent of the KRG’s imports are from Turkey. In 2012, Turkey’s exports to the region reached $10.7 billion -- 7 percent of Turkey’s overall foreign sales.
Another big Turkish company, Dogus Otomativ, has just announced plans to enter the region with auto brands Volkswagen and Audi, opening its first showroom in Erbil in November.
According to company CEO Ali Bilaloglu, the Kurdistan Region is a huge market, and according to World Bank figures by 2016 its national income will equal that of Switzerland.
