Dutch firm confident enough to invest in Turkey on permanent basis
Posted by meb at March 3rd, 2007
This week’s state visit by Dutch Queen Beatrix to Turkey is a landmark trip as it was the first-ever visit by the queen of the Netherlands to this country.
But there was another landmark aspect to the trip — a business delegation accompanied the queen, said delegate Jan Bout.
Bout is chair of the board of management of the Royal Haskoning, an independent, worldwide operating consulting firm founded in the Netherlands in 1881. In an interview with Today’s Zaman, he underlined how rare it was that a business delegation joined the Dutch queen during an official visit. Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs Maria van der Hoeven was also with the delegation.
“The reason why we’re here is that we’re convinced that the cooperation and integration between Turkey and the European Union should continue. It may certainly take a while, but as a process it should not be interrupted. We want to show this both in Turkey and also in our own country, thus it’s a two-sided mission,” Bout said, highlighting the extraordinary nature of the visit.
“The other reason why I’m interested in Turkey is its presence of stability. Compared to a few years ago, there is now low inflation and enough stability to engage ourselves on a more permanent basis,” he added, referring to his company’s presence in over 80 countries, with 67 branch offices and 36 project offices in Europe, China, Asia and Africa.
Nevertheless, while the company has engaged in many projects in Turkey in the last few years, it still doesn’t have a permanent office here.
Royal Haskoning to open permanent office soon
Bout unveiled good news during the interview as a show of confidence in Turkey’s stability. “’We have permanent offices in certain countries and Turkey should be one of them. We also see Turkey as a center point to use as a base,” he said. No date has been yet set, but the office is likely to be opened after the summer. The shipyard in Kocaeli, a jetty for container shipping in İskenderun, and the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), an irrigation development project, are among projects that Royal Haskoning has been involved with in Turkey.
While speaking of their project concerning the GAP region, Bout couldn’t hide his excitement, calling it “a very important project.” The first stage of the project was completed between 2003 and 2006. This year the company plans to assume the second stage, which consists of engineering and contracting studies.
Seeing his visible excitement and sincerity, one can’t help but wonder if Bout is an unmitigated optimist in regards to Turkey’s political atmosphere. The estimated date for opening a Royal Haskoning Turkey branch is after the spring presidential elections probably before the planned general elections in November — a time period on which some are already pegging worst-case political scenarios.
When asked about this, Bout admits being optomistic, without forgetting to note that he wouldn’t be in Turkey if he didn’t think there weren’t opportunities to make a profit. “Otherwise, it would be a loss of time.”
“I’m speaking not only on behalf of myself, but also on behalf of [the business delegation]. We expect that in politics there can be some ups and downs but we are currently convinced that Turkey will continue to be a stable country in economic terms. I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t know what will happen but that’s how we perceive it.”
“I think there is no way for Turkey other than continuing. There have been a lot of reforms in this country and they surprised me how fast they happened. Maybe there were some ups and downs, like it has happened in other countries that reformed themselves. Another reason why I’m confident is Turks are clever enough to remember the past when they experienced the impact of political uncertainty. They wouldn’t like a step back for their country. They may not be in full agreement in all details, but in broad perspective they know what’s necessary.”
Exchange of students spells investment in future
Being from a company that gives much importance to social responsibility projects, Bout is also a member of board of trustees at the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education, known as Nuffic. “As a member of Nuffic, I want to stimulate the exchange of students between the Netherlands and Turkey,” Bout said, noting that Nuffic planned to open this year a Netherlands Education Support Office (NESO) in Turkey. The office is to be opened in a couple of months.
“To build trust between two countries’ peoples, you have to have closer contacts between young people because experiences at early ages are precious. At the moment it is difficult for students here in Turkey to get a visa and we should improve that from our side,” Bout said, describing efforts for dialogue between the young generation of two countries as “an investment for thefuture for both of the countries.” He highlighted the need to imporve visa procedures by the Dutch side in order to get a stronger flow of people between the Netherlands and Turkey. “The procedure needs to be more flexible, this is a regret we’ve heard about so much while here.”
source: Today’s Zaman
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