Turkey
is planning to
exempt 50 countries from visa entry, which is already applied to
many Arab countries,
including Saudi Arabia, as part of the government’s ambitious
policy to open Turkey to the Islamic world.
Kamil
Eren, Turkish businessman and former chairman of the
Saudi-Turkish BusinessCouncil
said to Arab News that Turkey has one of the highest
growing economies in the World and would like to leverage its
strength on the model of Davos.
Eren,
who owns companies that employ Saudis said the Turkish economy ranks
15th now in the world.
For
this reason Turkey will open up to all Islamic countries and to this
region by waiving the visa
requirement for many countries such as Jordan,
Libya and Lebanon and Russia.
This
will also boost tourism since there are many flights from Atatürk
Airport. Istanbul is also connected to more than 90 countries and 200
cities and lies at the center of
Asia. Europe and Africa. Istanbul is the most attractive city with
historical sites, Bosphorus, amusement
parks, landscape, hotels,
and restaurants. Istanbul has the best hospitals in the
region specialized in
every field.
The
reason for the shift in emphasis on the Gulf region is that this
region is strong economically with almost $ 2 trillion floating in
its economy.
Eren
observed: “Now imagine 70 percent of Turkish is foreign and only 20
percent are coming from Islamic country that means we are not doing
our home
work very well. It was very easy to blame
others until this government came because earlier Turkish government
looked at Arab countries as second-class states. But now
with Islamic government in power, things are changing. And now we are
considering them as guests and so on. The government has said these
people should invest here and should not need any visa to come here.
Like Saudis when they go there, at the airport they can get visa in
less than one minute.”
He
said they are also doing the same for another 50 countries, which
don’t need visas, like for the Japanese. Three months ago the
government said some friendly countries can buy
properties in
Turkey without any restriction.Source:
ArabNews
