Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN, Minister of State Kürşat Tüzmen, Minister of State Ali Babacan, Minister of Defense Vecdi Gönül, President of the Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of the Turkish-American Businessmen’s Association (TABA) Dr. Zeynel Abidin ERDEM and President of the DEIK Turkish-American Business Council Vural Akışık came together at a breakfast meeting, in which also the Presidents of the world’s strongest financial institutions, as well as Mr. Gary Litman, the Vice President for Europe and Asia of the United States Chamber of Commerce, and General Daniel Christman, the Vice President for International Affairs, also participated, on January 29, 2004. During the meeting, the striking upturn in the Turkish economy as of 2003 was appreciated greatly. The fact that the comment was made by the Presidents of the Financial Institutions has pleased the Turkish delegation.

Dr. Zeynel Abidin ERDEM, the President of TABA that is the representative of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Turkey, stated that the Prime Minister Erdoğan had expressed the current stable improvement in the Turkish economy in an extremely clear way. Erdem further stated, “The Honorable Prime Minister of Turkey has invited the Presidents of the US Capital Groups to come to Turkey and encouraged them to treat Turkey like home. Hearing the fact that the bureaucratic bottlenecks and the drawbacks of the foreign investors are being eliminated one by one through new arrangements directly from the Turkish Prime Minister has created a highly significant confidence and effect on the participants. It was a very important and big opportunity for us. I congratulate our Prime Minister. As TOBB, TABA and DEIK, we are ready to perform our portion of work and provide all kinds of support for the realization of that invitation.”