Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

After their meetings in Los Angeles, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Prime Minister Deputy Ali Babacan and a delegation of businessmen traveled to San Francisco.

The delegation conducted important meetings with the giant energy and technology companies in Silicon Valley. Visiting General Electric first, the delegation visited Intel and Cisco afterwards.

General Electric officials briefed the visiting businessmen in regards to the company and talked about a project which they consider an industrial revolution.

General Electric Vice President Mike Harsh expressed that they are excited to be investing in Turkey, “Turkey is becoming a center of attraction in the field of software. The work in question requires talented minds. This behooves us to be closer to Turkey.”

GE’s Turkey, Middle East and North Africa Information Chief Dr. İbrahim Gökçen stated that GE is watching the efforts of the Turkish government to be one of the top 10 economies of the world with admiration; having announced that they will invest 900 million USD in Turkey before, he went on to report that they will be establishing an innovation center in Turkey in 2015 and that they plan to conduct a part of their exports to the region’s countries out of Turkey.

Ali Babacan stated that they have started many programs for investors and established a number technoparks, going on to report that these were tax free environments for production, save for social security premiums.

Stating that 51 companies have presented bids for the Fatih Project, Babacan said that every student would have a computer.

Continuing their visits in Silicon Valley, the delegation met with the Intel Vice President John Davies during lunch. The businessmen also met with the Cisco President Gary Moore.

Babacan and Hisarcıklıoğlu toured the company with TOBB members and observed the latest developments in IT.