Excellencies,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, allow me to express
my gratitude to His Excellency Ambassador Lyu Xinhua, Chairman of the Council
for Promoting South-South Cooperation, for bringing us together and giving me
this opportunity to address such a distinguished gathering.

Since its establishment in 2014,
the Council for South-South Cooperation has proved itself to be an indispensable
networking platform, creating invaluable exchanges between business and
diplomatic circles.

I am especially honoured by the
fact that the Council has also chosen to focus on Turkey-China relations. I
wish Ambassador Lyu and his delegation every success in their upcoming visits
in March.

I sincerely believe that Turkey
and China have so much to achieve under the framework of “South-South
Cooperation”.

Collaboration among the developing
and emerging countries of the Global South will be key to realizing the 2030
Sustainable Development Goals.

All of us should see our bilateral
cooperation agendas in light of this bigger framework.

The developing world has made
great progress since the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action, which first outlined
the objectives of South-South Cooperation.

Since then, our countries not only
became more self-reliant, but also transformed themselves into vibrant
economies with their home-grown development plans.

While we should be proud of the
great distance we have covered, we should also seek to enhance our dialogue on
the ways to achieve higher-quality development for our peoples in the future.

Today’s meeting gives us the
chance to make a good start in this regard.

In a short time, Mr Sezgin Taşkın,
our Commercial Counsellor, will be painting a more detailed picture about the
investment opportunities in Turkey.

But before he does, I would like
to underline a few general points about the current state of Turkish-Chinese
partnership.

The strategic cooperative
relations established between Turkey and China since 2010 have been blessed by
the close dialogue between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Xi
Jinping.

Our leaders share a common vision
on strengthening bilateral relations in a manner that will generate great
prosperity for our peoples and respective regions.

One critical aspect of this vision
is directly related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which we consider to
be highly compatible with Turkey’s own Middle Corridor Initiative, linking
China and Central Asia with Europe.

Turkey’s unique location as the
Western gate of the ancient Silk Road can help realize unprecedented
connectivity between China and her wider region, on the one hand, and Europe
and the Middle East, on the other hand.

The greater the connectivity, the
more prosperous our common future will become.

Our Presidents have recently
renewed their commitment to deepen cooperation in all fields in the margins of
the G20 Summit in Argentina.

The concrete outcomes of this
commitment have already taken shape in 2018.

Last year witnessed a record in
terms of the number of high-level bilateral visits between Turkey and China.

In addition to the visits of the
Speaker of the Turkish Parliament to China and the Vice Chairperson of the Standing
Committee of the National People’s Congress to Turkey, we have witnessed a
total of 10 ministerial and 8 vice-ministerial visits.

Thanks to these contacts, we now
have before us a highly detailed agenda for more effective coordination between
our governments.

China is Turkey’s biggest trading
partner in Asia and third biggest trading partner in the world.

Our trade volume was 23.6 billion
Dollars in 2018. However, we believe that the mid-term potential of our
bilateral trade is 50 billion Dollars.

We also aim to reach a more
balanced trade structure, given our trade deficit with China, which corresponds
to roughly 30% of our total deficit.

In this regard, Turkish exporters
have already begun to utilize the opportunities offered by last year’s China
International Import Expo and are looking forward to the 2^nd Expo
next autumn.

We also
hope to attract more Chinese investment to Turkey in the foreseeable future.

The
number of Chinese companies currently operating in Turkey is nearly a thousand.
These companies have successfully established themselves in the banking,
construction, mining, infrastructure, IT, agriculture and transportation
sectors.

Still,
we want to see more of our Chinese friends in Turkey. Turkey offers a lot in
terms of a favorable business climate, as, I am sure, the members of the
Council will themselves observe during their visit in March.

Achieving
the highest growth rate among G20 countries last year, Turkey is at its
demographic best. It is home to a young, dynamic population with a median age
of 31.

Geographically,
nothing compares to our unique location in terms of connectivity.

Within 4
hours of flight from İstanbul, you can reach 1.6 billion people in 57 different
countries and access multiple markets worth 24 trillion Dollars.

We have
an extensive Free Trade Agreement network with African, Middle Eastern and
Balkan countries.

Moreover,
Customs Union with the EU allows direct access to the European market.

Turkey
is also taking giant steps in the fields of transportation and logistics,
finalizing mega infrastructure projects which directly support the visions set
forth in the Middle Corridor and Belt and Road Initiatives. For example, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railroad began to
operate last year.

The total value of big
infrastructure projects that has been initiated since 2002 is over 250 billion
Dollars now. These projects include the New Istanbul Airport, Marmaray Subway,
Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Eurasia Tunnel connecting Europe and Asia.

Our next target is to complete the
Edirne-Kars High-Speed Railway Project to contribute to the connectivity of
Asia and Europe.

On the tourism and culture side,
the year 2018, which was designated as the “Turkey Tourism Year in China”,
witnessed a variety of activities that contributed to a better understanding
between our countries.

One concrete result of this was
the 84 percent year-on-year increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting
Turkey in the first three quarters of 2018.

As the connectivity between our
countries increase, I am positive that we will see a higher growth in our
mutual tourism numbers as well as a stronger cultural affinity between our
peoples.

Overall, one can safely that there
has not been a better time to think about the great opportunities offered by Turkish-Chinese
partnership.

Our cooperation directly
translates into a robust South-South cooperation framework covering the whole
Eurasian landmass. We should never underestimate the complementarity and
synergy of our aspirations.

Once again, I’d like to thank
Ambassador Lyu for this opportunity and wish everyone a fruitful meeting.

Thank you.