DEIK (Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey) was founded in 1988 to promote the economic and commercial relations of Turkish businessmen abroad along with the broader goal of ensuring the overall integration of the Turkish economy into the global world economy.

As a consequence of the economic liberalization policies of the 1980’s, Turkey became a prominent actor in international trade as well as an attractive hub for foreign direct investments. In fact, DEIK has earned considerable credit for this achievement as an institution that makes every effort to open the Turkish economy up to the world economy.

In recent times, DEIK was re-structured to more effectively conduct and coordinate the foreign economic relations of the private sector in Turkey. DEIK’s ability to carry out its mandate has been strengthened with a new legal status, new founding institutions and new financial structure in place.

In the light of this restructuring process, the numbers of the “Founding Institutions” operating throughout Turkey has increased from 9 up to 24 with the intention of gaining better representation in various sectors.

Furthermore, all Business Councils operating under the umbrella of DEIK were divided into 10 different regions and a “coordinator chairman” was designated to each region to achieve more effective communication and coordination between the DEIK Board, Secreteriat General and Business Councils. The newly established Board of Auditors monitoring DEIK budget and activities also constitutes one of the pillars of the restructuring process.

 

In the new era, the foremost priorities of DEIK will be to encourage the manufacturing of value added and highly competitive products and services. It will also be to secure easy access to large and diversified foreign markets, as well as to support Turkish firms in establishing and strengthening their brands abroad. Furthermore, DEIK also makes an active effort to promote business opportunities in Turkey and to attract high-tech foreign investments in particular.

Besides making the activities of DEIK Secreteriat General and Core Administration more efficient, efforts continue to increase the number and broaden the sector spectrum of bilateral business councils.. As a result, the number of the business councils has increased to 84. In pursuance of DEIK membership, Turkish companies with activities abroad can join in the relevant business councils. Moreover the representatives of the companies can guide the activities of business council executive boards. Constituent members are appointed through elections.

Companies based in Istanbul constitute 70% of DEIK members. Our aim now is to gain new members from other cities of Turkey and to include these companies in the activities implemented on the basis of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises .

I trust that the country’s most reputable businesses will continue to regard DEIK as a gateway to the world and profit from our services.

Rona Yırcalı
DEİK İcra Kurulu Başkanı