The Bilateral Business Councils, the Sector-Specific
Business Councils and Business Councils with Specific
Purposes have separate general assemblies which
hold regular and annual meetings. Every other year, the
Business Council’s General Assembly elects members to
its organ, the Executive Committee which in turn elects
the Business Council’s President among its members.
The Executive Committees hold regular meetings
and assess bilateral and multilateral cooperation
opportunities, problems and current developments. They
develop proposals for policies, solutions and mechanisms
designed to improve trade and economic relations. The
strategic master framework defined by DEİK’s Board
of Directors serves as basis for those proposals. The
Executive Committees also decide on studies to be carried
out with the purpose of identifying opportunities. The
Business Councils have additional task of organising
promotional activities that fall into their area of
responsibility.
With the aid of Executive Committees, DEİK’s
Business Councils implement the decisions
taken by DEİK executive organs. They are the
fundamental units of the organisation and
establish the bilateral, multilateral and corporate
cooperations in the countries, sectors and areas of
interest for which they are responsible. There are
three different kinds of Business Councils at DEİK:
“Bilateral Business Councils”, “Sector-Specific
Business Councils” and “Business Councils with
Specific Purposes”.
DEİK’s bilateral Business Councils are established
on the basis of cooperation agreements signed
with counterpart organisations. Their purpose
is to develop and deepen bilateral economic
relations with the respective country. The bilateral
Business Councils are categorized on six different
Regional Councils: Africa, America, Asia-Pacific,
Eurasia, Europe, the Middle East and Gulf Region.
They hold regular annual “Joint Business Council
Meetings” with their counterpart organisations in
the private sector of the respective country.
DEİK’s two Business Councils with Specific
Purposes are Turkish World Business Council
(2007), which unites Turkish businesspeople and
entrepreneurs, domiciled abroad and The Foreign
Investment Business Council was established
in 2013 with the purpose of understanding the
dynamics of Turkish private sector investments
in foreign countries, of generating solutions
for needs arising in connection with such
investments, and of ensuring a high degree of
coordination with the state in this respect. The
Council aims to become one of Turkey’s leading
corporate organisation in this area.
The knowledge acquired and generated by DEİK’s bilateral
Business Councils has become available for sector-
oriented studies in order to improve its vertical benefits.
In 2010, DEİK’s Board of Directors decided to establish
Sector-Specific Business Councils. Their purpose is to
gather valuable sector-related information in one place
and, in collaboration with the public and the private
sector as well as with civil society organisations, to
establish development plans. In this context, the sector-
specific Business Councils conduct bilateral business
talks and organise promotional meetings abroad. They
further prepare sector-based reports and cooperate with
foreign representatives of defined target countries on the
advancement of their relations.
For the purpose of improving the position of Turkey in the
global value chain and of developing our service export
potential, DEİK established the following sector-specific
Business Councils: Health and Tourism Business Council
(2010), Higher Education Business Council (2011), Energy
Business Council (2013), Logistics Business Council (2013),
International Technical Consulting Business Council (2013).
DEiK’s Business Councils
Bilateral Business Councils
Business Councils with Specific Purposes
The Modus Operandi of the Business Councils
Sector-Specific Business Councils
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