‘Turkey Exciting Market For British Companies’: TheCityUK Launches Turkey Advisory

On Friday 25 May, TheCityUK is launching a new market advisory group for Turkey. The Turkey Advisory Group will be chaired by Dr Robert Barnes, CEO of UBS MTF and Managing Director, Equities, UBS.
The Group has been established to develop and build closer business links between the financial and related professional services sector in the UK and Europe’s fastest growing economy. Regionally, Turkey continues to lead as an economic and political powerhouse. During his visit to Turkey in 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron set a goal to double bilateral trade to £18 billion by 2015.
The Group brings together UK expertise in the sector to focus on areas of mutual benefit for the UK and Turkey. It will also work to support the objectives of the UK-Turkey CEO Forum as well as to help the Turkish Government and private sector to develop Istanbul as a financial services centre.
Chris Cummings, CEO of TheCityUK, commented: “I am delighted we are launching our Turkey Advisory Group to promote and develop strong links between the UK’s financial and related professional services and Turkey’s private sector. In addition, we welcome the opportunity to liaise with the Turkish authorities on their ambitious plans to establish Istanbul as a regional finance centre. British and Turkish companies working together will form a formidable tool to assist the Turkish Government to deliver this project.”
Robert Barnes, the Group Chair, said: “Turkey is an important market for members of TheCityUK. There are significant opportunities for companies active in the UK and London’s international financial centre to partner with the Turkish private sector to grow their existing business and develop new enterprise in Turkey and the wider region.”
Trade and Investment Minister, Lord Green said: “I warmly welcome the foundation of the new Turkey Market Advisory Group which will help us to identify where we can work more closely with Turkey on financial services and how we can share our expertise to assist Turkey in its ambition to make Istanbul a regional financial centre. I wish TheCityUK every success with their initiative”.
TheCityUK already runs a number of market advisory groups which work to develop closer business links between the financial and professional services sector in the UK and growing economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. Similarly, it is developing a network of international financial centres, providing access to wider geographic areas through agreements with cities such as Dubai, Moscow and Toronto.