"A Turk cannot live without an Arab. An Arab is the Turk's left eye,"
HE Recep Tayyip Erdogan
This year’s round of the 5th Turkish Arab Economic Forum, was marked by a high level participation from the Arab and Turkish sides and was inaugurated by H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, H.E. Saad Hariri, H.E. Amro Moussa, H.E. Ahmet Davatoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs -Turkey, H.E. Mehemt Simsek, Minister of Finance-Turkey, H.E. Mr. Rifat Hisrciklioglu and Mr. Raouf Abou Zaki, General Manager of Al-Iktissad Al-Aamal, Lebanon.
During the opening ceremony, H.E. Erdogan said on economic relations with the Arab world, that” in Turkey today more than 2000 Arabic origin companies invest in Turkey and contribute to the economy of Turkey and their own countries," Erdogan said adding that “6.2 billion USD direct investment capital entered to Turkey from Arabic countries between the years 2002-2009.” Erdogan concluded by thanking the participants of the forum and said, "We share the same geography and also share a common history, culture and civilization."
H.E. Hariri reflected that “the participation of this exceptional Arab and Turkish elite from the private and public sectors in the fifth forum, reflects the importance of the development of relations between the Arab world and Turkey”
On his part, Secretary-General of the Arab League H.E. Amro Moussa said there were huge potentials of economic cooperation between the Arab countries and Turkey.
The forum tackled cooperation ties while focusing on sustaining and developing economic aspects between Arab countries and Turkey and was attended by 14 Arab foreign and finance ministers.
