Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) signed a memorandum of Understanding with
Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEİK) yesterday spearheaded by The President of the Chamber Mr. Eddy Abed and Mr. Tolga Eken – Honorary Consul of Barbados in Istanbul. With the help and support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade the MOU was facilitated. The Ministry received Mr. Tolga Eken, Honorary Consul of Barbados in Istanbul, Turkey and made possible the meeting and MOU signing on April 12, 2016.
Mr. Tolga Eken was in Barbados from April 9-13, 2016 for a series of consultations with officials of Government was keen to meet with the private sector. Mr. Eken was accompanied on this business trip by Mr. Ayut Eken, a distinguished business man in Turkey who leads the very successful Beta International Group of Companies. The Beta Group is a consortium with a diversified portfolio that includes home textile furnishings, and general trading activities. The company was established in Brussels in 1979 and since then has amassed a number of satellite offices in Belgium and Turkey.
The importance of trade and investment relations for the growth and prosperity of Turkey and Barbados respectively have been recognized and under the MOU both organizations have a agreed to encourage their private sectors to trade with and invest in each other’s market. This activity would be facilitated by both bodies through a wide range of initiatives, which include information dissemination, promotional events and, above all, networking activities to promote understanding, contacts and partnerships between private sector companies.
Barbados enjoys relatively good relations which are reinforced through the deliberate effort of Turkey to engage Barbados and other Caribbean states at the multilateral level. Turkey engages in cooperative efforts aimed at building regional ties that would also meet some aspect of the development agenda of these states. In 2013 Turkey opened two diplomatic missions in the Dominican Republic and Panama as part of its efforts to strengthen its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. Barbados and Turkey established diplomatic relations in September 1972 and Turkey first accredited an Ambassador to Barbados on February 19, 1973.
The BCCI looks forward to a mutually beneficial partnership and envisions increased opportunities for its members to capitalise on.
Below is a picture with (from left) Captain Don Chee-A-Tow from Chee A-Tow Consulting, Ms. Natalie Cox, Senior Foreign Service Officer – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Mrs. Lisa Gale – Executive Director BCCI, Mr. Eddie Abed – President BCCI, Mr Tolga Eken – Honorary Consul of Barbados in Istanbul, Mr. Tansal Akcayli – CEO of CSS, a Turkish businessman and Mr. Aykut Eken – President of the World Federation of Councils and Honorary Consul in Jamaica.
