TOBB and United States Sign Agreement to Develop Turkey’s Economic Diversity

Turkey’s union of chambers of commerce and the United States signed Wednesday an agreement on entrepreneurship to develop the country’s economic diversity especially in information technologies.

“Thanks to this Global Entrepreneurship Program, we want to create a suitable environment to create our own entrepreneurs like Apple’s founder Steve Jobs, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates,” Rifat Hısarcıklıoğlu, chairman of the Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges, or TOBB, told reporters at a joint press conference with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone.

Turkey’s union of chambers of commerce and the United States signed Wednesday an agreement on entrepreneurship to develop the country’s economic diversity especially in information technologies.

“Thanks to this Global Entrepreneurship Program, we want to create a suitable environment to create our own entrepreneurs like Apple’s founder Steve Jobs, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates,” Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, chairman of the Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges, or TOBB, told reporters at a joint press conference with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone.

The program aims to transfer American entrepreneurs’ experiences to their Turkish counterparts. Telling that Turkey was at a turning point to move up into the league of high-income countries, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Therefore we want all our entrepreneurs to be in contact with American business circles.” A group of American businessman who call themselves “angel investors” will visit Turkey in December, he said. These investors are mainly businessmen running companies in the Silicon Valley.

Ricciardone, for his part, said the U.S. was aiming at intensifying its cooperation with Turkey through this program. Recalling that Google’s CEO Schmidt had meetings in Ankara on Tuesday and he met with him over a dinner, the U.S. ambassador said Google’s head was very impressed by Turkey’s dynamism. “He was also impressed by the competition of ideas. He had concerns about freedom of expression, the state’s role and how these could affect the Internet. As far as I know, he openly expressed these to the Turkish media,” he said.

Ricciardone said Google was planning to expand its investments in Turkey.

June 22, 2011
SOURCE: HURRIYET DAILY NEWS