Is Turkey A Keyplayer in Emerging Asia?
Experts discuss Turkey’s role in an emerging Asian region
Although the specter of power shifting eastward has long been entertained, the acknowledgement of such seems to have picked up ever greater momentum in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. And with this growing acknowledgment of the ascent of Asia has come increasing calls for greater coordination in the region to maximize the efficiency of these shifting power realities. Experts hope that Turkey’s geographical location as a bridge between the export markets of Asia, the consumption markets of Europe and the emerging markets of Central Asia and the Middle East will ensure that the country will be at the forefront of discussions on regional architecture.
Such were topics of central discussion during last week’s Confederation of Asia Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) 25th annual meeting held in İstanbul. The conference, aptly titled “Asian Business: Re-Setting Priorities Amid Shifting World Economic Balance,” brought together leaders of chambers of commerce and industry from over two dozen countries as diverse as China, Nepal, Australia, Turkey and Iran and focused heavily on ways in which greater trade and integration between the countries of the region could be promoted.
Speakers such as Professor Güven Sak, president of TOBB University, and Hakan Genç, president of ARKOS port service, were part of a chorus that pointed to the emergence of a Turkish hub. “The Asian power-markets are growing rapidly, they need access to emerging markets,” Genç said. Pointing to the “growing wealth and buying power in emerging resource rich countries like Kazakhstan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Algeria and Libya,” he joined a number of guests who advocated a position that Turkey was becoming an increasingly important component of an ecosystem that not only helped facilitate Asian countries reaching Europe but also to help them to reach emerging markets in its region.
Turkey as a soft power
The ability to be a “soft power” in the region is an angle Turkey is increasingly relying on to position itself in central discussions of “region” — be that the EU or an emerging Asia. This soft power, leaders attended the conference hope, comes not only from Turkey’s emerging economic prowess but also from its democratic yet Islamic political identity.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu echoed this line of thought at the same conference, delivering a speech in which he said, “The new economic world order requires safe transit routes to the markets of Europe.” Drawing on images of a new Silk Road Davutoğlu proclaimed that “with the completion of the Marmaray Project,” a $2.5 billion project that will connect İstanbul’s Asian and European sides via an undersea commuter train line, “Turkey will connect Beijing to the markets of Europe.” The Asia-Pacific region needs safe passage to these markets, which Turkey can facilitate. “Wherever there is a change,” the minister said, “Turkey is in the center.”
But some experts warn that one must be careful not to exaggerate Turkey’s role in this process. “Turkey is as of today a rising player,” Professor İbrahim Öztürk of Marmara University told Sunday’s Zaman. “But this potential is not realized yet and therefore it is exaggerated,” he said, adding, “We are not yet sure if we can realize this.” He feels that his shift depends on many things including political stability, the shift of global growth and the future of commodity and energy prices. “If we realize our potential, we can be a global power,” he adds.
“Trade, economic development and equitable distribution of goods can arguably be the greatest factor affecting stability in the region,” Pierre Chartier, economic affairs officer of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, told Sunday’s Zaman.
In the context of Asia, some say this sounds much like the logic behind the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the forerunner to the present-day European Union. Indeed, it was the idea that peace and cooperation could only be achieved between long-time European rivals by creating a high degree of regional economic interdependence. And some say such talks are evidence of the triumph of regionalism over globalization as increasing costs and slowed growth turn private sector interest more towards the region.
Not all are as quick to jump onboard with what they consider to be a hasty conclusion regarding the emergence of regionalization over globalization. “This has been an eternal question,” Sinan Ülgen from the İstanbul-based Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) told Sunday’s Zaman. “There is not that much of a divide between inter-regional and global trade. I think on the contrary, they feed on each other. Increasing trade regionally increases trade globally. Sourcing is global.”
20 March 2011, Sunday
SOURCE: TODAY’S ZAMAN
DAVID NEYLAN , İSTANBUL
