Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

​- The Forum members welcome the concrete steps taken since the 4th meeting, which was held on 25 January 2010.     - Among these, the Forum members welcome the capacity building programs organized in cooperation between the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) and Islamic Development Bank, where Turkish experience on the following areas have been transferred to high-rank public officials and chamber representatives on the following areas:    Organized Industrial Zones    Chamber and private sector development    Investment promotion    Good governance in local administration authorities     The Forum calls upon TOBB and Islamic Development Bank for more capacity building programs on trade facilitation, private sector development, and vocational education.     - Forum participants are pleased to welcome the Afghan Business Forum, held in the context of the Fourth Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA IV) which was honored by H.E. Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey and H.E Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The Forum also support to further bilateral and trilateral contacts and events in order to further economic and commercial relations.     - The Forum welcomes the progress made by Afghanistan and Pakistan to further preparations to join international TIR System, which is a crucial tool to facilitate international trade and decided to work together to draw a road map based on 40-year experience of TOBB as TIR guarantee institution.   - The Forum calls upon the need of incorporation of Afghanistan into the agenda of Islamic Development Bank’s Special Economic Zone Initiative and encourage the Bank to mobilize the role of Turkish private sector for the purpose of transferring Turkey’s know-how in Organized Industrial Zone development and management. Chambers also recognize the need for detecting new cooperation opportunities in fostering private sector development by overcoming key barriers that hinder development of value chains in light industries such as food processing. Specifically, chambers call upon a pilot project by the TOBB that involves choosing a suitable industrial estate in Afghanistan and to preparing a feasibility study of an investment there in food packaging, refrigeration and / or quality control in the next 6 months.   - The Istanbul Forum decided to have its sixth meeting in the second half of 2011.