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Omani-Turkish Committee calls to set up joint ventures

Global Arab Network - - Mohammed Almasri

Saturday, 06 March 2010 23:16

Oman (Muscat) - The 8th Session of Omani-Turkish Joint Committee Meeting began in Muscat at Al Bustan Palace Hotel. The Omani side was chaired by Mohammed bin Nasser al Khusaibi, Secretary General of the Omani National Economy Ministry, whereas the Turkish side was chaired by Bashir Atalay, Turkish Interior Minister.

Al Khusaibi gave a speech saying that the committee had strived to establish cooperation between the Sultanate and Turkey during the past years by signing a number of cooperation agreements between the two friendly countries. He called upon the private sector in the Sultanate and Turkey-through the joint businessmen council- to set up joint ventures. He also commended the Economic Cooperation Committee's endeavors - as part of the Cooperation Framework Agreement between the AGCC states and Turkey.

He said that Oman economy proved capable to with stand the global financial crisis challenges in terms of huge drop of 44% in Oman oil prices in 2009 as compared to 2008. Despite this dramatical drop in oil price, Oman economy grew by 3.7% (fixed price). This was attributed to the economic policies aimed at enhancing economic diversity and encouraging investment and financial policies pursued by the government to enhance local demand, financial policies and other measures taken to supply liquidity and supporting stability of the banking sector in particular and the money sector in general, he added.

Al Khusaibi said that Sultanate's total exports to Turkey - including re-exports- rose from RO.27,000 in 2001 to RO.14.5 million in 2008. The Sultanate's imports from Turkey also rose from RO.12.1 million in 2001 to RO.66.2 million in 2008.

For his part, the Turkish Interior Minister and head of the Turkish side at Omani-Turkish Joint Committee hoped that the 8th session of the committee's meeting would enhance existing cooperation between both countries. The agreements and MoU's are the solid base for organizing existing cooperation between the Sultanate and Turkey in various economic sectors. Turkey is according great attention to it's ties with Arab and Islamic countries in general and the Sultanate in particular, he added.

"Besides the economic and trade areas, the Turkish side would like to explore other potentials. The technical committee at the Omani-Turkish Joint Committee should study this and added it to minutes of the meeting for future reference," he said. "The global economic crisis had it's toll on exports and imports of each country," he added.

The head of the Turkish side commended the economic measures taken by the Sultanate during the crisis which had less impacts compared to other countries. He said that the Turkish banks were not affected by the crisis and had not received financial support from the Turkish government either.

He pointed out that the value of Turkish exports stood at $102 billion in 2009 compared to $136 billion in 2008 and $36 billion in 2002. The total foreign investment in Turkey amounted to $20 billion, an indication that the Turkish market has good potential for foreign investments.

He pointed out that the tourism sector revenue in Turkey is $20 billion and that the inbound visitors rose from $26 million in 2008, $27 million in 2007. He encouraged the respective departments in the Sultanate to benefit from the Turkish experience in this field.

He also said that energy constitutes 30% of the purchases of Turkey and that it acts as a linking point between oil & gas exporting countries in the East and importing countries in the EU, especially 50% of the needs of the oil consuming countries pass through it.

After that the proceedings of the 8th Omani-Turkish joint committee started. The Committee will discuss the scopes of cooperation in the fields of investment and trade in terms of promoting for the Omani products, encouraging the joint trade exhibitions and expanding the scope of cooperation between the private sectors in both countries, especially in investment, trade and tourism fields to explore economic partnership between the two countries.

The Committee will also discuss exchange of economic information on the free zones and the experience of Turkey in the field of business incubators and the possibility of benefiting from the abundant raw materials in the Sultanate in industries, such as, cement projects and different types of minerals.

The Committee will also discuss the importance of benefiting from the studies and researches in the field of sustainable management and renewable energy technologies.

The Committee will also discuss the cooperation in the field of heritage and culture through cooperation in the field of indexing and classification of manuscripts and documents, taking part at the international book fairs in both countries, benefiting from the expertise in the field of translation of the publication, taking part at the archeological exploration works and exchange of visits in the field of archeology.

The Committee will also discuss the cooperation in the field of fisheries, exchange of visits, expertise, reports and studies.

It will also discuss exchange of visits among specialists in the different educational fields to benefit form the experiences, the participation of specialists at the conferences, workshops, forums and seminar, in addition to, organizing joint art, culture and science exhibitions and exchange of educational publications and benefiting from the training scholarships provided by Turkey in the field of education.

The Committee will also discuss bilateral cooperation between higher education institutions in a number of fields, such as, concluding an agreement on activating the academic cooperation, exchange of teaching staff, researchers, benefiting from the industrial experience of Turkey in engineering, IT majors and exploring the possibility of organizing training courses in the field of education institutions management, student activities, planning, project management and IT.

The opening ceremony was attended by Sayyid Qais bin Salim al Said, the Sultanate's ambassador to the Republic of Turkey , the Turkish accredited ambassador to the Sultanate and members of the Omani and Turkish delegation. (ONA)

Global Arab Network

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