Balkans | Foreign Minister Cavusoglu: There will be no waiting at the Bulgarian border

Regarding the export queue at the Bulgarian border, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said: “The number of lines on the Bulgarian side was low, especially for the passage of trucks, and with our support, the Bulgarian side had various structures there and they cleared it. They opened 3 lines There will be no waiting here anymore.”

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attended the meeting of the Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO). Pointing out that 60 percent of crises and wars revolve around Turkey, Cavusoglu said, “We see that the power of America and Europe in the middle is gradually decreasing. There are those who say that the world centered around the West is coming to an end. We don’t want anyone’s economy to be bad.” “The European Union was dependent on Russia for energy, and now it is dependent on different regions. Thanks to the strategic moves we have made over the years, we have become an energy hub. There was a tendency to go back to the 1990s in the Balkans, and we intervened immediately.”

“We have become a brand in mediation”

Minister Çavuşoğlu said, “Turkey needs to be more stable and stronger.” In the past 20 years, we have brought many businesses to our republic. Where would we be in this environment of the world? We need to manage it, and we need to be prepared. The policies we implemented during the Covid period set an example for the world. In the past, when we look at the number of tourists, we find that the income will be half the number. Now we’ve reached the figure of nearly a thousand dollars per person. Our economy grew 11 percent after covid. It was thanks to our ability to manage the epidemic. Our policy regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine is a policy that everyone in the world would envy. We were neutral in the first place, and also neutral in principle. We have brokered for peace. Whole Food Crisis, ICP. Türkiye is the only NATO country that can talk to both countries. Everyone, from the Philippines to Somalia, trusts Turkey to mediate. We have become a brand in brokerage.

“We always affirm that we will never give up on the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem.”

Minister Çavuşoğlu stated that their actions with regard to Ukraine are appreciated by the whole world, and indicated that they have normalized relations with countries with which they have been separated for a while, and that Egypt and Israel are among these countries. Noting that the decision not to allow non-Muslims to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque in the last ten days of Ramadan came as a result of this dialogue, Cavusoglu said, “This is not about accepting the cruelty committed by Israel. We always affirm that we will not make any concessions on the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem as made possible.” We have the opportunity with Armenia. Every step in the dialogue between Azerbaijan and them will have a positive impact on our relations.

“The records continue”

Cavusoglu confirmed that exports rose from $36 billion to $254 billion:

Records in exports continue this year. Our goal is to reach $500 billion and then $1 trillion. This is possible. We set a target of $100 billion with the United States. It rose from $17 billion to $34.2 billion in two years. There were some restrictions, and now they are removing them like iron and steel. It will increase more. 100 billion dollars is no longer a dream with a country. We see the benefit of being a reliable supply chain. We used to have less than 1 percent of world trade, now it’s up to 1.13. This will increase even more.”

“economic diplomacy”

Emphasizing that exports increased by 27 percent in countries where representative offices were opened within 2-3 years, Minister Çavuşoğlu said, “After we witnessed the renaissance of Africa with the continuation of economic diplomacy, we said ‘African expansion.’ Our trade grew from 4 billion dollars to 40 One billion dollars. We said “Latin America”. From $800,000 we are now close to $20 billion. It will increase with both. We said “Asia again”. We said with a holistic approach. We have collaborated with African countries and organizations with 1030 concrete projects. Our Asian initiative has begun 4 years ago, our trade increased by 40 percent.Our goal is to increase the welfare of our country.

Underlining that it is also important for global capital to come to Turkey, Cavusoglu said that with increased confidence comes capital, and $251.4 billion of foreign direct investment came to Turkey between 2003 and 2022.

Our national average has gone up to 80 percent.

Noting that obstacles to trade can be overcome through free trade agreements, Minister Çavuşoğlu said, “We have a customs union agreement with the European Union, and this needs an update. Win-win concept. Unfortunately, this is one example of the lack of a union.” European to the vision. We are negotiating to expand the scope of preferential trade agreements and expand free trade. We need to secure investors and traders. Our incentives, including tourism, must continue, and visa facilitation is one of them. Trading in national currencies is our priority. We are making very important investments in the industry Defence. Our mileage rate has gone up to 80 percent, but we need to make money from it. We’ve always been importing and giving money. Last year, we exported $4.5 billion. That’s going to go up to 45 or 100. He said the rate for those qualified products will go up even more.

“health tourism”

Stressing that health tourism is one of his priorities, Minister Çavuşoğlu said, “We are currently signing health cooperation agreements with many countries, especially the Gulf countries. We have seen the benefits of the huge investments we have made and now we are getting the reward. The private sector is doing very well in this field.” Antalya There are private clinics in many areas in terms of oral, dental and eye health.People who are not dentists are investing.We will increase the number of these agreements,” he added.

Trucks at the Bulgarian border

Referring to the export queue at the Bulgarian border, Minister Çavuşoğlu said: “The number of lines on the Bulgarian side was low. Especially for the trucks passing through, with our support, the Bulgarian side had different structures and they cleaned it up. We thank our neighbor Bulgaria. They opened 3 new lines, And there will be no waiting here anymore.It will be very useful for our expatriate citizens coming from abroad.We will open it before the elections in the coming days.This was a very important development.It has been prepared in the laboratory.It will open in the laboratory in the coming months.Based on your requests until the opening of the laboratory there We now send samples taken from there to the capital every two hours. He used to go once a day.

“high rents”

Speaking about foreigners acquiring real estate and high rents, Minister Çavuşoğlu said, “I appeared on a TV program. What did they say? The biggest complaint of the people of Antalya, I said, is that the rents are high. True, true. In Antalya, the Ukrainian-Russian war first, and then the earthquake led to an increase in rents.” Our police friend doesn’t want to come to Alanya, Antalya.The teacher is the same.Tourism professionals can no longer find top managers, they need to find a house.We regulated the Foreigners’ Acquisition of Property Law, which was enacted in 1934, in certain years.We introduced Limitations. This can always be modified. “We will forward your request to the relevant friends,” he said.

‘Germany’s decision is absurd’

Minister Çavuşoğlu emphasized that the EU has an arbitrary and political practice on visa issues:

During the last six months before the elections, they extended the visa application deadlines a lot in order to put the AKP and us in a difficult situation. Our world will go to the conference, and they set a date two weeks after the conference. Our businessmen will participate in the exhibition and practice in the same way. Some countries also put pressure on other countries. There is a decision Germany made today, an absurd decision. We wanted to get the ballot box on the feet of our nation. Wait until the last day. We have sent a message to YSK that we can open the polls and set up poll committees in places where there are no missions. Citizens come because it is too far away. We need to switch to electronic voting. Let the parties examine the safest way. We need to get to those. Let us trust our nation, let us not tire our nation. After all, everyone gave permission, including Austria. We said that polling booths should be opened in some places where there are no missions, and we made preparations. YSK members are now traveling all over Europe to see if we can do it and they are very satisfied. There has been no doubt about our elections abroad yet. Today, they made a political decision that we will not allow them in places where there are no missions, as in the case of visas. After the election, we have some visa-related procedures. It targets countries that practice it arbitrarily. If they limit us, we limit them. Embassies will do arbitrary practices, I will make him do everything freely in Ankara, nothing like this will happen. Visa will you give me bro. The goal is not to persecute us politically, and we will not acquiesce to them.”

“Spring brings troubles”

ATSO President Ali Bahar spoke about the problems experienced by the members and said, “Although housing sales in our city appear to be a positive situation at first glance, it seriously changes the social, cultural and economic structure of our city. It seems to be a development that will negatively affect commercial life in the future , where our qualified workforce with civil servants and fixed-income employees would like to leave our city due to the ongoing housing problems.Antalya, which was a city mostly favored by retirees and civil servants in the past, is on its way to becoming a more expensive city by changing its shell in This period In order to eliminate this important problem faced by our citizens due to the sale and rental of housing, and to prevent further grievances, we demand the regulation of real estate acquisition practices for foreigners.

Bahr pointed out that the visa problem has caused serious disturbances in participating in foreign exhibitions and organizations, and in traveling abroad for business and investment purposes. Bahar stated that despite the equal length and economic cost of the Antalya-Kayseri and Antalya high-speed train lines, there is a big difference in terms of their revenues.

Expressing that the Antalya-Eskişehir line will create an added value that is almost twice as high as the Antalya-Kayseri line if implemented, Bahar said, “On the other hand, this line will be connected to Izmir and Ankara by high-speed train via Afyon, and to Bursa and Istanbul via Eskişehir. It will increase the economic value it will bring to our Antalya several times.

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