As Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to meet in Ankara, Greek and Turkish entrepreneurs exchanged ideas about cooperating in various sectors of interest during a business forum in Istanbul.
Some of the areas of interest explored included possible collaboration on wind turbines in the Aegean Sea, further tourism cooperation following the visa express, as well as cooperation in the shipping and shipbuilding industry, healthcare, and education.
The president of the Greek-Turkish Business Council, Adnan Polat, himself a renewable energy entrepreneur with a presence in Greece, highlighted the enormous prospects created by the common area of the two countries, the Aegean, where wind farms can be developed. He emphasized the possibility of even direct electrical interconnection not only between the mainland areas of the two countries but also directly from Turkish shores to Greek islands.
Byron Nicolaides, Founder and CEO of Greece’s largest unicorn, PeopleCERT, pointed out that Turkey is a large market with enormous potential for Greece, while for Turkey, Greece is a unique gateway to the European Union.
Nikos Vettas, the General Director of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), referred to the crucial decisions that the two countries are called upon to make, with the most significant being whether to compete or cooperate. Vettas outlined three areas at the forum that could contribute to achieving the goal of cooperation between the two countries: supporting shipping and shipbuilding industries could be one sector. Another could be the broader healthcare sector (pharmaceuticals, elderly care, etc.), and a third could be higher education and research.
