As part of its endeavours to promote Gulf-Turkish cooperation particularly in the area of economics and in order to benefit from the Turkish economic expertise and transfer it to Gulf states, the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) took part in the Fifth Bosphorus Summit for International Cooperation held under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Turkey Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The summit entitled “Changes and Future Scenarios: Facing Challenges through Peaceful Means” was held at the Four Seasons Istanbul from the 10th till the 12th of December, 2014. The summit was inaugurated in the presence of former Turkish President Mr. Abdullah Gül and with the participation of a number of heads of states and governments, officials and experts from about 70 different countries.

 

Al-Ageel
GOIC Secretary General Mr. Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Al-Ageel delivered a speech in which he reiterated “GOIC’s interest in participating in the summit in light of its big contribution to economic and industrial development and the reinforcement of cooperation and partnership between public and private sectors in different countries of the region in the areas of investment and trade in today’s globalised world and trade.”

Al-Ageel said: “Globalisation not only affected global trade dynamics and investments, it has also influenced production systems of every industry, hence creating new regional competitors. In order to secure their position on the global trade scene, these countries need to understand the new manufacturing scenario that emphasises on deep and rapid change preserving the sustainability of industrial development.”

Al-Ageel stated: “Should the countries of this region want to secure a bigger role in global trade and industrial investments, policy makers need to understand the key features and attributes of the new manufacturing scenario and operate accordingly. This scenario includes a series of key elements such as technological advancement affecting all economic activities. Therefore, regardless of its level of income and development, every country needs to retain new technologies in order to compete at a global scale.

 

Furthermore, industrial competitiveness has become crucial as a result of the decrease in the economic distance. For instance, the cost of telecommunications has dropped on the one side and countries endeavoured to become open economically and commercially on the other, which boosts industrial competitiveness.”

“The core of competitiveness is innovation, education and technological and business management advancement. Organisation and business networks are a nowadays a reality that needs to be taken into account by developing countries and industrially developed countries alike. Moreover, as a result of the decrease in the economic distance, products, resources, equipment, machinery, capital and state-of-the-art technologies and skills are moving more smoothly and rapidly. This has become the crucial factor in determining whether industrial companies are capable of growing and competing or not”, said Al-Ageel. He added: “Low prices related to competitiveness and free trade are essential to national value chain that is closely linked to global value chain.”

 

GCC countries and global trade
Al-Ageel stated: “GCC countries have been recently playing a vital role in global trade: their total exports to different countries in the world equalled 936.110 billion USD and the total imports were valued at 486.096 billion USD in 2012. EU countries were the first exporters to GCC countries (21.4%), followed by China (13.4%) and America (11.3%). Furthermore, east Asian countries were the first importers from GCC countries (20.3%), followed by Japan (15.3%) and the United States of America (7.4%).”

As to GCC-Turkish trade, Al-Ageel explained: “Turkish exports to GCC countries gradually increased throughout the last decade to reach 9.3 billion USD in 2013. Thus, GCC countries have become the third destination for Turkish exports (6.3% of the total Turkish exports). In a parallel trend, Turkish imports from GCC countries gradually increased throughout the last decade to reach 8.38 billion USD in 2013 (3.3% of the total Turkish imports).”

Al-Ageel concluded: “There are several areas of GCC-Turkish cooperation including construction and infrastructure projects, aircraft industry, pharmaceuticals, energy projects and food and agriculture industry. In this regard, GOIC launches numerous industrial investment opportunities from which industrial investors can benefit by cooperating with the Organisation.”

 

The Summit
The Fifth Bosphorus Summit tackled several topics on the MENA region and Europe with emphasis on recent events in the region and economic aspects. It also discussed investments in global trade and dedicated a session to investing in Qatar and how to attract investments to the State of Qatar.

Furthermore, the Summit’s various themes included the European Union and the challenges it is facing, economic and demographic changes in Eurasia, inequality between men and women in the area of economics, the role of young leaders in the field of economics and how to manage their institutions in the future, telecommunications and the use of modern technologies for communication.

 
Moreover, other important topics were highlighted by the summit, including defence industries and challenges faced by this type of investments, internet mafia, electronic challenges that global corporations face and how to overcome them, recent events after the Arab spring and how to create a new banking system.

In addition to that, one of the sessions was dedicated to energy issues and the role of the G20 in the development of this sector internationally and achieving global energy security, in addition to Turkey’s role in this regard. Other topics included renewable energy and climate change and its impact on the agricultural sector and food and water security.