ISTANBUL: Turkey and Japan have been working on an economic partnership and customs agreement to be signed on 90th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and Turkey, going to held in Istanbul.
The EU and Japan are negotiating a free trade agreement and Turkey doesn’t want to be left out of this agreement as a Customs Union member, said a customs officer from Turkey.
Emphasizing that Turkey wants to work on a free trade agreement with Japan parallel to the EU-Japan free trade agreement, he said that the economic partnership is a kind of preparation for the free trade agreement.
“Development with public spending is not sustainable; therefore, we believe development and employment can better take place with private sector partnership,” he added.
“In Japan, an important period has started with the economic policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The first results of Abenomics policies are encouraging but the shrink in Japan’s GDP in the third quarter is a significant issue to pay attention to,” said official adding, “We believe that Japan’s economic policy will be completed with the third arrow; namely, structural reforms and the result will be good”.
CEO of IHI, a Japanese company producing ships, Aero-Engines, industrial machines, suspension bridges and other transport-related machinery said, “They have built İzmit Bay Crossing Bridge, the largest suspension bridge in the world [sic] with maximum localization by being partners with several Turkish companies.”
Vice Chairman of Taisei Corporation Satoru Ogata said, “An undersea rail tunnel under the Bosporus strait has been a dream of Turkey for a long time and we managed to turn this dream into a reality in cooperation with Turkish companies. The reasons for the project’s success come from trust between the partners, the 2for the Project2 mind and Professional spirit.”
Deputy Minister of Science, Industry and Technology, Davut Kavranoğlu announced that a Turkish-Japanese Science and Technology University would be established. “This university will have the standards of world famous universities such as MIT and Tokyo University. It will mostly give doctoral education, which is a significant need for Turkey to develop.”
