DEİK HOSTED WELCOMING RECEPTION OF THE  FORUM OF FOREIGN MINISTERS OF TURKEY AND SICA

Second Foreign Ministers Forum of Turkey- Central America Integration System (SICA) was held in Istanbul in April 20-21 upon Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's invitation. Within forum, the reception organized by DEİK/Central America and Caribbean Business Council on April 19, 2017 in Istanbul was attended by Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avcı, Costa Rica Foreign Affairs Minister and SICA's President Manuel González Sanz, SICA Secretary Werner Isaac Vargas Torres, Belize Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Elrington, El Salvador Foreign Affairs Minister Hugo Martinez Bonilla, Guatemala Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Raul Morales Moscoso, Honduras Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Dolores Agüero Lara, Panama Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Luisa Navarrro, DEİK President Ömer Cihad Vardan and Business Council President Aykut Eken.

Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avcı reminded that Turkey supports peace in every region in the world and expressed his gratitude for hosting the member countries of SICA, CELAC. Turkey is fulfilling its duty to end political crisis, war and quarrels since Turkey is always by democracy, law and righteousness. In the fields of culture and tourism, Turkey is hoping to collaborate with the countries in the region. Minister Avcı expressed that Turkey has been housing many civilizatiosn, different historical, cultural and natural beauties. Turkey has tourism potential in the fields of sea, culture, belief, winter, health, thermal and gastronomy.

DEİK President Ömer Cihad Vardan, Turkey and SICA countries need to create a roadmap to create strong economic ties in the future. He highlighted DEİK's structure, Turkish business community's operation and representation power; furthermore, he added that he believes that there will be strong bonds in the fields of trade and investment.

DEİK/Turkey-Central American and Caribbean Business Council President Aykut Eken highlighted that DEİK has a leading role through Business Councils especially in the distant geographies such as Central America and Caribbean. Eken, expressed that total trade volume between Turkey and SICA countries with the value of 410 Million USD Dollar is not sufficient and trade needs to be developed. 

SICA

Central America Integration System (SICA) comprises of 8 countries including Belize, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rika, Nicaragua and Panama. System was created by using its experience of regional political crisis, war and quarrel periods and dictatorships. System aims to dominate region with peace, freedom democracy, development at the same time to trigger constitution transformation and democratic regimes.

CELAC

Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) comprises of 33 countries from Latin American and Caribbean with the aim of establishing dialogue and political agreement. It was established to accelerate regional political, economic, social and cultural integration. It covers a population of 600 million people.  CELAC enabled the social development and dialogue of education, nuclear disarmament, culture, finance, energy and environment.