Year of Establishment: 2000
Founder Chairperson: Turgut Doyran
Chairperson representing Türkiye: İbrahim Fuat Özçörekçi
Company: Neon Sanayi ve Gıda A.Ş.
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The DEİK/Türkiye-Syria Business Council was established in 2001 when political relations between Türkiye and Syria began to improve. At that time, the Council was the driving force behind the advancement of bilateral economic ties which found its expression in many mutual visits of trade and investment delegations. In those years, the Syrian market was terra incognita for Turkish firms, and the Council led the way to its discovery. The main purpose of the Council was to further cooperation between the two countries and to help turn new cooperation opportunities into concrete projects.
The Business Council also lobbied both countries’ private sector and state authorities for the signing of a Free Trade Agreement. For Syria this meant the transition from a command economy to a free market economy. The Council assisted in identifying obstacles to trade faced by Turkish companies, submitted solution proposals and provided leadership in the removal of many of them. However, with the outbreak of civil war in 2011, the Council began to focus its activities on Syrian businessmen active in Türkiye, on the organisation of meetings and on finding solutions for their problems.
