What you (don’t) know about Turkey ( and Mozambique)

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What you (don’t) know about Turkey ( and Mozambique)

2:14 CAT | 10 Aug 2016

File photo of Istambul

The Republic of Turkey, located at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, has unique characteristics and interesting aspects of its foreign policy that perhaps are little known regarding its geography, tourist places and its relationship with Africa, Mozambique in particular. For example:

Turkey is the only country in the world that has 3 bridges that connect Asia and Europe

Although the country’s capital is Ankara, Istanbul is the largest city with 5,343 km² and half of the Istanbul city is in Asia and the other half in Europe.

Istanbul has an extraordinary natural beauty, significant archaeological remains, and superb architecture, that give the visitors the opportunity to contemplate the valuable works of art from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.

According to the Turkish Representative in Mozambique, Ambassador Aylin Tashan, In 2014, Turkey was the 6th most popular tourism destination across the globe. In 2015, almost 40 million tourists visited the country.

The cities of Marmaris and Bodrum, located where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean, are recommended tourist destinations, since these are places where the “show goes on until sunrise”.

The Turkish state is the “6th largest economy in Europe and the 17th economy in the world and the country has successfully performed the leadership of G-20 IN 2015 ” said Aylin Tashan.

Turkey and Mozambique have been diligently working to turn Maputo and Ankara into “sister cities”.

In 2003, the trade volume between both countries was around US$5M and in 2015 reached US$120M.

The Turkish-Mozambican business council is the platform that brings together the private sector from both states.

“Turkish companies operating in Mozambique, such as Renaissance, Turkish airlines, GAMA, STFA, Yapi Merkezi and Limak holding (all construction companies, except Turkish airlines) are among the top ten investors in Mozambique.” Said Ahmet Yener, Commercial counsellor at the Turkish Embassy in Maputo.

Limak with an investment worth of US$40M has laid the foundations of a cement company that will have an annual production capacity of 2M tons. The manufacturer is scheduled to come into operation in the second semester of the current year.

Only this year, the Turkish representation in Mozambique has organised three events; one of them was the participation of the representatives from CTA (Confederation of Economic Associations in Mozambique) and CPI (Centre for Promotion of Investments) at the Construction Fair that took place in Istambul.

In October 28th, 2015 Turkish Airlines has started scheduled flights between Istanbul and Maputo.

Still according to Ahmet Yener, there is a great potential for the improvement of cooperation between the two countries in almost every field such as the chemical industry, mining, textile, energy, agriculture, food, pharmacy industry, transportation and logistics, healthcare and construction.

By: Ilda Mathombe