Mehmet Özay 26.07.2019
 |
| foto:freemalaysiatoday.com |
Within a few decades, the political stability in
Turkey ensured economic modernization in sustainable way. There is no doubt that
this is a widely accepted truth and a reason behind Turkey becoming a member of
G-20.
Turkey wants to play a big and become a global political
player in the coming decades. Pertaining to this strong political will, the
country now thinks about how to expand its economic activities by upgrading its
currently established conventional trade and investment environments.
Successful developmental
models in Asia-Pacific
Though the current global economic stagnation has
caused some significant obstacles for sustainable development in recent times,
it is undeniable that East and Southeast Asia are still considered as engines
for global production and consumption processes.
In fact, these regions are also part of a larger
geographical setting, namely, the Asia-Pacific region, which has significant
future prospects. Some circles even express a greater vision of the
connectivity of the region by including India as well.
Such aspirations were observed in the latest ASEAN
summit in Bangkok in June this year. Though there is a political aspiration inherent
in this view, nobody can deny India’s status as an emerging economic power
house which will be giving a new shape to current relationships.
An analytical approach to the developments in the last
half century would indicate that the positioning of Asia-Pacific as a regional
establishment in terms of economic modernization is not a new phenomenon. The
Asia-Pacific region has been increasingly playing a crucial role for the progress
of the global economy. And beyond this, the region has been quite successfully
reconstructed considering 21st century globalization.
The early signs of this development were seen in the
role of People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the initiation of the
reconstruction of the US in the early 1970s. Today all major and minor actors
in global setting undeniably agree that the power house called China is determinant
in not only regional, but also global economic progress.
Lost opportunities and new
occasions
In retrospective analysis, Turkey is seen to have been
busy and stuck in domestic issues pertaining to political rivalry among
ideologically divided parties. As a result of this, we should honestly say that
it has been missing the opportunity to focus accordingly on the Asian
developmental perspective for a while.
While this latter issue is still relevant in the context
of the rapid progress of the Asia-Pacific, Turkey should have a bold vision to
expand and improve its economic capacity through various fronts. But as a first
condition, it is a must to overcome the issue of geographical distance which is
repeated argument by concerned parties which see it as an obstacle. Ending this
distance, which constitutes a psychological barrier as well as a source of
contention in front of business initiations, should definitely be a priority.
The strong regional improvement of Asia-Pacific has
been observed in the last half century. Major analysts in the West have been arguing
why the Western business circles should strongly reposition themselves towards
this region in various fields pertaining to economic development, international
finance and investment environment, reaching towards and dominating in the
newly emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific.
With regard to this grand picture of global tendencies,
one can assert that Turkey should not be left behind and should focus on becoming
a partner and play-maker with significant long-term planning. For that purpose,
policy makers, business associations, and to some extent some socio-cultural
organizations in Turkey must have innovative and concerted efforts towards such
policies.
Pertaining to this vision, there are some important conditions
which should be taken into consideration in order to improve the bilateral
relationships with the member countries of regional associations, no matter how
the small or big they are. It would be a quite reasonable action, since the prospects
of the region are still relevant for long term development.
Need for modelling on strong partnership
As the issues matter for Turkey’s national development,
collaboration with some states such as the ASEAN states which can be said to
have similarities in some perspectives and have already proved economic activities
in the region is very crucial.
In this angle, the Federation of Malaysia, among the
member countries of the ASEAN is a strong candidate for a beneficial partnership
in various fields for both public and private sectors.
Without being trapped in some misunderstood historical
issues or manipulations, as done by certain groups in recent decades, the Turkish
government should consider restructuring its relations with Malaysia. Close
partnership among the business interests from both countries will ensure
stability and encourage in expanding to economically less developed countries through
both investment and export activities.
And this process must be, as required, based on the
basis of high-level coordinated efforts with the participation of relevant
parties from public and private sectors, without alienating the professional
contributions of the higher education institutions. The latter seems to have
already initiated some valuable insights on the regional countries and
societies, though there are still many more areas to be covered accordingly.
Turkish business circles must have an aggressive approach
to comprehend why the Asia-Pacific region has been constantly progressing and
why they themselves must have multi-level partnerships with the regional
actors.
In this context, relevant business circles which are
capable in business areas such as textile and apparel business, fishery, food
processing, animal farming, maritime, mining, oil and gas industry, which are
considered as labor-intensive, can find quite fruitful opportunities to expand
and sustain their business agenda for mid and long-term prospects.
I remember that almost a decade ago, an international
consortium was going to be established in order to have a search and drilling
process in north-west of Indonesia. Though there was an attempt to get an
initiation for this quite fruitful investment, the representative of Turkish
government in the region did not support it in any way, rather arguing that Turkish
companies had no experience in this particular business.
What was quite interesting was that one of the member
countries which ultimately took part in this consortium was Malaysia. No one
can negate the professionality and experience of the Malaysian petroleum
companies and sub-sectors which support the whole process of production till
the marketing stage. Someone can attest similar lost opportunities in recent
past in various fields of investment in the sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific
area owing to the misunderstanding of the situations in the region.
What makes Malaysia an important country is that it is
the biggest trade partner of China in the ASEAN, and this relationship has not
been hampered due to ideological differences.
It is obvious that the Malaysian state-based companies
and private sector in distinct fields have aggressively attempted to increase
the amount of bilateral commercial interaction with China. In addition, both
countries look for expanding their investment opportunities. The recent dispute
pertaining to a huge investment of China in the Eastern coastal area of the Malay
Peninsula should not cause any misunderstanding about the direction of the
bilateral relations.
According to the above-mentioned ideas, Turkish authorities
should have a new geo-political narrative considering high-level calculation
mindful of prospective geographical settings.
It would be helpful for the relevant agencies in the case
that investment departments of the relevant corporations have an open policy towards
Southeast Asia in order to attain a strong profitable position in the coming
future.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder