Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board Treasurer Faik Yavuz statyed in his speech at the business dinner noting that Turkish invesetment into Macedonia has increased rapidly in the last 10 years in a wide variety of sectors such as banking, education, health, construction, agriculture, textile, retail and tourism, reaching a volume of 1.2 billion EUR by approximately 100 businesspeople.

Underlining that Macedonia offers attractive opportunities for investors in agriculture, livestock and processed agricultural products sectors, Yavuz said, “We anticipate that the current free trade agreement between Macedonia and our country will be renegotiated so that customs taxes will be lifted or receive preferential rates in all agricultural products. We will have the potential to mobilize our mutual business partnership in this area and we urge support from the Macedonian Prime Minister to this end. We urge support of Macedonian authorities to overcome the problem of importing meat, and we will give you the support we need for the development of Macedonia.”

- Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev stated that Turkey has been instrumental in his country's integration with Euro-Atlantic institutions, “After our independence, Turkey was our biggest supporter. Our doors are always open to Turkish businesspeople. A third of my time as Prime Minister is allocated to businesspeople. There is a 10 year tax exemption. Come on, invest.”

The business dinner was attended by a delegation of Labor MPs from Macedonia, Turkey's Ambassador to Skopje Tülin Erkal Land and Turkish investors.