afrol News, 22 August - The chairman of the newly established Africa-Turkey Chamber of Commerce has dispelled the notion that Turkey is coming to Africa in search of raw materials.

Riftat Hisarchikloglu, who uttered the remarks at the end of a three-day Turkish-African summit in Istanbul on Thursday, declared, "We are not coming to Africa for raw materials and in search of a supermarket, we are interested in lending our manufacturing expertise to Africa."

Rather, he said, Turkey's main interest is to exchange competencies and technologies with Africa.

Mr. Rifat also said Turkey proposes to ease access of African products to the world market as well as favour its development and stability.

Africa-Turkey adopted the Istanbul Declaration, establishing partnership between Turkey and more than 50 African states on a wide range of issues.

The leaders resolved that through Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency [which already has offices in Senegal, Sudan and Ethiopia], Turkey should open more offices in Africa to carry out some development projects.

The declaration seeks to aims to stimulate investments and trade between Turkey and Africa as well as promote greater cooperation on disarmament, collaborate on legal matters to ensure peace and stability
.

They also commit themselves to strengthen diplomatic, bilateral and multimateral meetings.

Turkey and African states also recognised and agreed to facilitate the private sector as a critical tool for economic growth, and direct special focus towards the devlopment of agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing, water resources and small and medium scale enterprises as a means of wealth creation for both sides.

Mr. Rifat said through a paradigm shift in economic management, Turkey, a struggling economy only 20 years back, was able to pull itself out of poverty becoming the 15th largest economy in the world and the 5th biggest in Europe.

"We were closed economy but when we opened up and welcomed the world to Turkey, our economy boomed," he said, adding that Turkish goods are consumed all over Europe and America.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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