Turkey eyes the Future

By Asoka Ranaweera

The writer is the founder and CEO of a company that advises investors on structuring investments and developing projects in West, East and Central Africa.

Just incase you missed it, Turkey, has recently made great strides in Africa. In March President Abdul Gul visited the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, both for the first time, accompanied by a large delegation of businessman.

Two years ago Turkey hosted an African-Turkish summit in Istanbul with 50 African countries present. And earlier in that year Turkey had promised to open up 15 new embassies on the continent within a short period of time.

And so what’s going on, you might ask? Why the sudden rush? In fact the Turkish foreign ministry had set out an Africa policy agenda in 1998 in support of a renewed push by the World Bank to promote the continents overall development. Turkey felt it was time for it to become more involved. Since, 1923 when the Turkish Republic had been founded, Turkey’s relations with Africa had been very much ambivalent.

Prior to founding of the Republic, the Ottoman Empire, had conquered parts of North Africa, such as Egypt and Sudan, and made limited military forays into Ethiopia and Djibouti. The Ottomans also developed some trade links with African countries.

Turkey’s recent re-engagement in Africa also has a strong element of self-interest. In 2005, Turkey declared the Year of Africa, just as two way trade volumes reached $5 billion. It was also the time that Turkey was looking for support for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan made the first in a series of visits to Africa in that year. And by 2007 Turkey’s trade with Africa had increased to well over $7 billion.

Turkey eventually did receive support for its candidacy from all but one African country and in exchange pledged to pay closer attention to Africa’s interest not just in the UN but in all international bodies where Turkey was present.

Opening up to Africa has also been good for Turkish business and politics. Its interesting to note that many of the beneficiaries of the Turkey’s Africa drive also happen to be small and medium sized companies dubbed by the Economist as “Anatolian Tigers” as many of the business people who run them come from an area that is considered to be at the root of support for Turkey’s moderate Islamist party the AKP.

Now that we have some idea of what’s in it for the Turks, what is in it for the Africans? Quite apart from international political support from a country that is increasingly crafting its own unique foreign policy independent of its long time ally the United States.

There appear several areas in, which Africa can benefit. One such area is agriculture. The vast majorities of Africans are still farmers and/or are directly tied in some way to agriculture. Turkey has a stellar reputation for agriculture and there is much Turkey could help Africans with in this regard. Therefore, cross-collaboration in agriculture, information and technology sharing is one obvious area in, which African’s can gain from Turkey.

Another possible area for value addition to Africa is to learn from Turkey’s industrialization experience. By this, I do not necessarily mean Turkey’s economic or industrial policy, but rather through studying the rise of Turkey’s large, medium and small sized businesses. As a person who has many friends in Turkey’s business community the vigor and foresight, with, which many Turkish businesses operate never fails to impress me.

Let’s not forget Turkey’s economy for many years and still is in many ways over laden with bureaucracy; and successive governments seemed to thrive in stalling innovation through excessive rules and regulations, a situation in many ways similar to many African economies.

Finally, with a large percentage of Africans as Muslims, the continent has an opportunity to learn about the role of moderate Islam in the development of Turkey’s state. Turkey therefore could serve in some ways as role model for African nations in this regard. Turkey’s role in Africa though only recently reinvigorated holds much promise both for Turks and Africans.