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USIA - Mayors from Southeast Turkey Visit United States, 97-02-24
From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at <gopher://gopher.usia.gov>
MAYORS FROM SOUTHEAST TURKEY VISIT UNITED STATES
(Meeting officials, businessmen, planners in 5 cities) (560)
By Rick Marshall
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- Ten mayors from Southeastern Turkey are in the United States
for a two-week tour that is taking them from Washington, D.C., to Denver,
Colorado; Columbus, Ohio; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, to meet with local businessmen and officials to discuss
administration, regional planning and their region's potential for foreign
investment.
The ten -- Ahmet Bilgin of Diyarbakir, Abdulkadir Tutasi of Mardin, Aydin
Talay of Van, Omer Topcu of Yuregir (Adana), Ali Sezal of Kahramanmaras, A.
Munir Erkal of Malatya, Salih Gok of Batman, Abdulkadir Turan of Mus, Mete
Arslan of Iskenderun, and Ahmet Bahcivan of Sanliurfa -- began their tour
by attending Washington's annual conference of the American-Turkish Council
on U.S.-Turkish relations and speaking at a special workshop February 20
about the opportunities for growth and investment in Southeastern
Anatolia.
Much of the region can expect to benefit from the Ataturk Dam project under
way for the past decade. According to Ertan Engin, general manager of the
Turkish firm Exsa Export and a speaker at the workshop with the mayors,
when completed, the massive hydro-electric project should irrigate four
million acres in the region and supply up to 25 percent of Turkey's
electrical needs.
Irrigation should make the region a prime investment opportunity for the
agricultural sector, particularly cotton, and thereby boost the country's
textile sector, Engin said. He also cited the Southeastern Anatolia Project
Regional Development Administration's plans to give priority to infrastructure
projects in the major cities of the region so as to meet the rapid
population anticipated there over the next two decades.
In their talks, the majors stressed the effectiveness of the security
measures the government has taken to rid the region of PKK terrorists. "The
city centers are safe and open to all kinds of investment," Bilgin
said.
His remarks were echoed by Elizabeth Shelton, the principal officer and
consul at the American consulate at Adana. "In the cities and in the rich
agricultural lands, terrorism has largely abated, and so the commericial
opportunities are great," she said in a brief interview at the conference.
"Local entrepreneurs are investing their own money."
The mayors' tour is being sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA)
and Temple University's Center for the Study of Federalism. According to
Shelton, the idea for the tour grew out of a chance meeting last year
between the mayor of Columbus and Sanliurfa Mayor Bahcivan, while the
former was the head of the National League of (U.S.) Cities.
According to USIA officials, the mayors are expected to meet with the
regional council of governments and visit a water treatment plant in
Denver. In Columbus, they will meet with the local chamber of commerce, the
international trade division of Ohio's department of development and the
local environmental protectional agency, as well as visiting a recycling
facility. In New Orleans, they will meet with local business leaders and
government officials.
In the Philadelphia region, they will meet with professors from Rutgers
University, travel to Trenton, New Jersey, to discuss regional development
with the Delaware (River) Valley Regional Development Planning Commission,
and then meet with officials from Pennsylvania's conservation office and
planning commission. A representative of Temple's Center for the Study of
Federalism will accompany them throughout their tour.
From the United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at gopher://gopher.usia.gov
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