DEÄ°K COUNCIL TO REDUCE ‘OTHER’ DISTANCES BETWEEN CANADA, TURKEY
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
July 13 2009
When Turkish Airlines (THY) flight TK017 from Ä°stanbul Ataturk
International Airport touched down at Toronto’s Pearson International
on Saturday, one of the main barriers to business between Turkey and
Canada had been removed. But according to Dr. Yılmaz Arguden, chair
of the Foreign Economic Relations Board’s (DEÄ°K) Turkish-Canadian
Business Council, more needs to be done to reduce the distance on
other, trickier issues that are not purely geographical in nature.
"The geographical distance has been reduced," said Arguden, and
continued, "This will go a long way to remove many of the psychological
barriers to doing business with Canada and vice versa."
But while these direct flights may have helped to reduce the
geographical distance between the two countries by shaving a number
of hours and connections off the time passengers spend in transit,
it has done little to remove the other, thornier distances that
separate Canadians and Turks.
What Arguden terms as "mental distance" and "sentimental
distance" still exist. Both of these need to be bridged if any
meaningful increase in relations between the two countries is to
transpire. "Mental distance" has to do with perceptions that Canadians
have of Turks and vice versa, Arguden says. As more Turks are able
to visit Canada and Canadians come to Turkey, these mental barriers
will slowly break down.
"As an academic, I like to back things up with numbers," Arguden
said. Pointing to the fact that most Canadians know little about Turkey
or its culture, Arguden said: "More than 95 percent of people who come
to Turkey for the first time leave Turkey ‘pleasantly surprised.’ This
demonstrates that prior expectations do not match what people actually
see." In terms of pure trade, he believes this would go a long way
toward focusing Canada’s attention on markets other than just the US
— at present well over three-quarters of Canadian trade is done with
its southern neighbor. "Given this situation, it’s hard for Canadians
to think about Turkey."
Other mental distances that Arguden hopes will be broken down are
those related to misconceptions about the investment environment and
the state of infrastructure in Turkey. "I think Canadians worry about
business systems, infrastructure and so on in Turkey," he noted and
said that "I believe that infrastructure was one of the main things
that scared [potential investors away]."
Unfortunately, there are still other barriers to increasing ties
with Canada, and according to Arguden, if Canada wishes to see these
distances shrink, the ball is in Canada’s court: "’Sentimental
distance’ comes about largely when politicians try and legislate
history." He was of course speaking about the Canadian government’s
recognition of the deaths of Armenians in Anatolia during World War
I as genocide. "What does the Canadian prime minister know about an
event that happened a hundred years ago?" he asked. Indeed, according
to him, the effects of this recognition in turn impact the other
two distances he spoke of. When asked by Today’s Zaman why it took
so long for direct flights to occur between the two countries and
whether there was something more than the stated failure to agree
on a double taxation treaty between the two countries that held the
flights back, Arguden replied, "Frankly, it was related to the third
[sentimental distance]." He, like others Today’s Zaman has spoken with,
said that Canada and Turkey were ready to abolish double taxation and
limits on direct flights long ago. "But every year there was another
initiative from the Canadian side to legislate history, and that did
nothing to abrogate the sentimental distance."
His role at the helm of DEÄ°K’s Turkish-Canadian Business Council
was instrumental in finally removing the barriers. Since Arguden
stepped into the position about five years ago, trade between the
two countries has grown to about $1.1 billion. Although this is an
impressive achievement, Turkey still enjoys less trade with Canada
than any other G8 country.
But increasingly, businesses are investing in each other’s
countries. Cumulative Canadian foreign direct investment (FDI) in
Turkey reached $1.5 billion in 2008. This money was mainly invested
in the telecommunications, mining, media, energy, agricultural and
tourism sectors. Nortell, for example, the Canadian telecommunications
sector giant, has invested in a research and development center in
Turkey which employs hundreds of Turkish engineers. CanWest, the
Canadian media giant, has acquired shares in a number of Turkish
media outlets including Turkish radio stations Super FM, Metro FM,
Joy FM and Joy Turk FM.
And Turks are showing up in the most unlikely areas of Canada: In
Saskatchewan, on the harsh Canadian prairies, Turks from Mersin have
arrived and have become some of the largest red-lentil splitters in
the country, investing in massive multi-million dollar cleaning and
splitting plants.