On 30 March 2016, DEİK, TAİK and İSPAT jointly organised a Round Table Meeting in Washington, the capital of the United States of America. The event was held on 30 March 2016. The Turkish side was represented by the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Economics Minister, Mustafa Elitaş, and the Natural Resources Minister, Berat Albayrak, DEİK President Ömer Cihad Vardan, İSPAT President Arda Ermut, and the President of the DEİK/Turkey-USA Business Council (TAİK), Ekim Alptekin. The host country was represented by top managers of giant international corporations such as Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Baxalta, Honeywell, Citibank and PwC, and the representatives of 25 Fortune-100 companies.
In his address, the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, emphasised the importance of economic, trade and investment relations with the United States, which he qualified as equally significant as the political, military and defence dimension of their partnership. Turkey would continue to be a paragon of stability in the region, and as one of the up and coming nations, Turkey wanted to consolidate its position with new investments and mega projects.
Unfortunately, economic, trade and investment relations between Turkey and the United States had not yet achieved the desired level. To change this situation, President Erdoğan, invited the American business community to invest in Turkey. One purpose of this visit had been to find an answer to the question of how to advance the trade relations. In this context, Erdoğan expressed his commitment to the targets defined in his country's vision for the year 2023. He was closely watching the progress of TTIP negotiations between the United States and the European Union. He deplored not to be included because of Turkey's Customs Union with the EU. Being left out of the TTIP had a negative impact on the country's economy. At this point he sought support from the American business community.
Following the Turkish President's speech, the American managers informed the President and his delegation about their present investments in Turkey and the future potential.
