Canada stresses importance of Turkish cooperation

ANKARA

Canada's ambassador to Turkey has stressed the importance of Turkish and Canadian cooperation in public private partnerships (PPP) during a conference in Ankara.

Speaking at the second panel of the "Canada - Turkey PPP's in Infrastructure Conference" on Thursday, John Holmes pointed out the increasing number of Canadian firms' looking to Turkey for new business in infrastructure development.

He told the audience in Turkey's capital that Canada and Turkey had opened 2014 in a position of strength, "but even more so as allies with shared financial fundamentals and complementary economies."

"The ideas in the conference will also form the agenda of a Canada-Turkey Joint Economic & Trade Committee which hopefully will be launched later this year by Canadian and Turkish ministers," he added.

Holmes said that at the end of 2013, high level visits and such new mechanisms had increased direct flights and progress toward the eventual opening of Free Trade negotiations, which had cemented the two countries' bilateral relationship.

"In Istanbul (the conference's 1st leg), we heard some suggestions about how to finance, develop and support public-private partnerships. These ideas have generated potential business ties among participants" he added.

Turkey's Ministry of Development Deputy Undersecretary Cuneyd Duzyol told the audience that Turkey aimed to increase the trade volume betweenCanada and Turkey.

"Our top priorities are international cooperation in development and providing high-livability cities with sustainable environment," he said.

"We have already actualized 173 project with this PPP model. Canada has established more than 200 projects with their PPP models in education, culture, defence and IT areas that we have not started yet. We have lots of things to learn from each other," he added.

Mark Romoff, CEO of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP), also gave a presentation about Canadian experiences on PPP models and what Canada offers.

He said there was a total of 206 projects, 108 of them ongoing, in the Canadian PPP market; especially in transportation, healthcare and the justice sector.

The panelists gave presentations to the conference on such subjects as PPP's project finance models and it's policy and practice in Turkey.

The ambassador earlier thanked the Ministry of Development, the Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT), the International PPP Platform of Turkey, and Export Development Canada for their support.

He also thanked Canadian participants for their interest in Turkish market.

englishnews@aa.com.tr