Turkey keen to provide manufacturing expertise

“WE ARE not coming to Africa for raw materials and in search of a supermarket, we are interested in lending our manufacturing expertise to Africa,” Rifat Hisarcikloglu, chairman of the Turkey Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told a recent threeday summit in Johannesburg. It's a message that clearly resonated with SA deputy president Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka. “With our minerals in Africa we must work with partners who will assist us in adding value to our own continent,” she said. Over the past 20 years Turkey has been able to pull itself out of poverty, becoming the fifteenth largest economy in the world and the fifth biggest in Europe. Turkish goods are now consumed all over Europe and America, while Turkish contractors earned $20 billion from contracts on infrastructure development such as sea ports, airport and road construction around the world last year.