ANKARA
By Bahattin Gonultas and Arif Yaman
Taiwan is the best route into the burgeoning Chinese market, Turkish investors have been advised.
“The world pays more attention to mainland China as the world's second-largest economy,” Yaser Cheng, who represents the Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission, told The Anadolu Agency. “Taiwan knows mainland China better than any other country in the world,”
“Taiwan can be a springboard for foreign companies who want to enter the Chinese market. There are only three economies that earn money from mainland China - Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.”
According to Cheng, even the Japanese are using Taiwan as an entry point to China, selecting Taiwanese companies as strategic partners because “we understand their [the Chinese] way of thinking."
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China and largely populated by Han Chinese, is the world’s 20th largest goods exporter and 18th largest importer, according to the World Trade Organization.
Calling for closer ties between Taiwan and Turkey, particularly in the economy, culture, science and technology, Cheng went on: "Taiwan has signed deals to avoid double taxation with more than 50 countries in the world, including 12 countries in the EU.
“In Turkey, [which is] such an important country we don’t have any trade-related agreement. How can Taiwanese businessmen come here to invest?"
Trade volume between the two nations was at $2.1 billion last year, 96 percent of which consisted of Taiwanese exports to Turkey, which only exported $117 million worth of goods to Taiwan.
Taiwan is the world’s 28th wealthiest country and the sixth richest in Asia but it lacks natural resources and its economy is highly dependent on exports such as electronics, telecommunications, precision machinery and biotechnology.
The lack of direct flights and the absence of Turkish trade delegates in Taiwan are also hampering commercial relations, Cheng said.
"Direct flights would cut travel time by at least five hours... Turkish Airlines is very proud of flying to every connection city in the world but not to Taiwan, which is a very important location for many areas.”
He added: "Turkey is located in such an easy place to enter all the markets. I always encourage businessmen in Taiwan to invest here, to use Turkey as a gateway to enter Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
"Taiwanese companies have been investing in Eastern Europe rather than Turkey, even though these countries’ economic development is not like Turkey’s, because they have many privileges to invest there which we do not enjoy in Turkey."
Stressing Taiwan's links to Turkey, Cheng said the Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission contributed $100,000 in aid to Turkey's Soma mining accident, as well as to earthquake victims in the eastern city of Van.
"We try to help people in need because our president has made humanitarian aid one of our important foreign policies," Cheng said.
There are around 20 Taiwanese students studying in Turkey and more than 100 Turkish students have picked Taiwan for their education, Cheng explained. In particular, Taiwan is popular with Chinese language students.
"Over the past six years, Taiwan and China’s relations have improved a lot,” Cheng explained. “The U.S., Japan and European countries have been developing their relations with Taiwan. It is unfortunate that Turkey doesn’t pay more attention to this. I encourage the Turkish government to have a more flexible attitude toward Taiwan.”
Since 1971 Taiwan has maintained its status as an independent state despite the loss of official international recognition, with many economic and cultural missions springing up in the place of embassies.
Ankara regards Taiwan as a part of the People's Republic of China, like Hong Kong and Macao, under the One China policy, although diplomatic links remain through the mission.
Professor Selcuk Colakoglu, vice president of USAK, an Ankara-based think tank, described bilateral trade as the remaining area to explore in terms of Turkish-Taiwanese relations.
"There seems to be no concrete vision for the future of relations,” he said. “On the one hand, Turkey is willing to develop its relations with Taiwan for economic reasons but on the other it shows an inconsistent stance due to the possible reactions from China.
"However, leading countries such as the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, South Korea, and Japan have strong economic ties with Taiwan and the Taiwanese authorities argue that Turkey could also pursue the same path in developing its relations with Taiwan."
Colakoglu added that the most practical solution for Turkey would be to give Taiwan a status similar to federal states or autonomous regions under international law.
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