The Italy-Turkey Bilateral Government Summit chaired by Prime Minister Mario Monti and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be taking place on Tuesday 8 May 2012 at Villa Madama. Taking part in the event, which will conclude with the signing of a number of agreements, will be the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, the Economy, Home Affairs, Economic Development, Employment and Social Affairs, and the Environment. The Rome bilateral was preceded by an economic forum in Istanbul for about 250 of the two countries’ leading companies. An event that Italian Ambassador Giampaolo Scarante described as “a great success” and which confirms that Italy “is operating as a system” on one of the region’s major emerging markets.
An annual growth rate of 8.5%
Turkey is growing at an annual rate of 8.5%. The country is already the world’s 16th economy and aims to become its 8th over the next 10 years, with annual pro capita income of 25,000 euros. The Italian companies who attended the forum in Istanbul were led by employers’ association Confindustria, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) and the Italian Trade Institute (ICE). They are seeking to expand Italy’s market share in Turkey, explore where to invest, increase the number of Italian-Turkish joint ventures, and together penetrate the markets of the Middle East, central Asia and Eastern Europe. As ABI Vice-President Guido Rosa explained, Italian banks have made 8 billion lire available to companies planning to operate in Turkey.
Turkey has nearly 80 million inhabitants, a figure set to rise to 100 million in 10 years time, and is 3 times the size of Italy. Italian investment there began 50 years ago, with FIAT and Pirelli paving the way. Now, more than 900 Italian enterprises are operating in Turkey and Italy is Ankara’s 4th commercial partner, with trade amounting to 21.3 billion dollars in 2011 (up 28%).
Investment in infrastructure
Turkey has enormous investment projects worth hundreds of billions in the pipeline and up until 2023, including in infrastructure and the energy sector. The tangible results of the Italian trade mission, in terms of agreements and investment, will be seen later on, said Ambassador Scarante. He added that the healthy economic relationship between Italy and Turkey reflects the equally healthy relations between the two governments, whose views converge on most of the major international questions.
