Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Ça?layan has announced a $30 million marketing support package for exporters which will add $6 billion to the volume of exports that Turkey is expected to make by the end of this year.

Speaking at a press briefing titled “New markets, New Subsidies for Exports” at the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat in Ankara on Monday, Ça?layan told reporters that the $30 million in subsidies to exporters will create 36,000 jobs around Turkey. The package will provide funding for 61 exporter unions, the chambers of commerce and industry in 69 provinces and over 100 business associations and cooperatives across the country. “With this package, the overseas advertising and marketing expenditures of our hospitals, universities, software developers and movie industry will be subsidized by up to $300,000 each. [For example,] as a result of this support more of our soap operas and movies will be exported, leading to more foreign currency inflow to Turkey,” Ça?layan added.

On the particular issue of the funding for universities, the minister said he expects the funding will assist universities to attract a further 100 foreign students each to be admitted for this year’s fall semester. “We expect that these students will bring $650 million in tuition fees to Turkey,” he said, underlining that the eventual target is “to make Turkey an education hub.”

Ça?layan is also hopeful of the impact that this funding will have on the healthcare sector. He believes there is an “enormous unleashed potential” for growth in the health tourism sector as patients in Turkey have notable price advantages in health services vis-à-vis developed European nations. “Take for example, cataract surgery, which is 76 percent cheaper here than in the UK. Every year 60,000 tourists come to Turkey [for healthcare services], and the financial resources they leave behind is $850 million. We want to achieve $5 billion in healthcare tourism revenue in the next five years,” he said. Turkey seeks rebound in Egypt, Tunisia business

In response to a question about what would happen to the Turkish business presence in Egypt and Tunisia, where decades-long dictators have recently been ousted, Ça?layan said he will shortly be visiting both North African nations together with key Turkish business representatives. “We will very rapidly reach the pre-upheaval [trade] level. We are now expecting responses from Tunisia and Egypt. We will travel to both countries together with the presidents of the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists [TUSKON], Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association [MÜS?AD], Turkish Exporters’ Assembly [T?M] and Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges [TOBB]. We will bring Turkish investors together,” he said.

Commenting particularly on Libya, where the forces of a multinational coalition are conducting operations to protect civilians against unpopular leader Muammar Gaddafi, who previously vowed to crush all opponents “without any mercy,” Ça?layan said Turkish businesspeople will be “the first to return” to the troubled North African nation with which Turkey has deep historical ties. “Our companies are businesses in difficult circumstances. They are presently operating both in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our first priority is to have things calm down there,” he said, reiterating remarks made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

Erdo?an had said: “We expect that no further blood is spilled and that the military operation will be concluded as soon as the necessary environment of peace is achieved. Perhaps the most important characteristic that distinguishes Turkey from others is that we do not see the resources both under and above ground when we look at countries [in the region], but we see the people.”

todayszaman.com