The 5th world congress of the Chambers of Trade and Commerce took place July 4-6 in Turkey with 1600 representatives from 118 countries.
The Armenian delegation also participated in the congress and the executive director of the RA Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Gagik Vardanyan, also went to Turkey. That congress gives the representatives of different countries the chance to not only get acquainted with one another, but also to gain experience in the business culture, get information regarding the markets of the represented countries, find new markets, and even make certain agreements. According to Vardanyan, in that sense they didn’t come back empty-handed. They met many new people, got information, and can now point Armenian businessmen in the right direction if there is a need to find markets. However, the Armenian delegation rates the contacts that they had with Turkish businessmen even higher, and in general, the presence of our delegation was obviously noted in Turkey.
“The heads of the branches of Turkey’s Chambers and Stock Exchange Union had surrounded us, and we were exchanging data. They were taking advantage of the occasion to introduce Turkish factories to our businessmen, and informing us of their desire for cooperation,” says Mr. Vardanyan. “President of the chamber, Rifat Hisarjlikoghlu, was very attentive towards us. There was a feeling that outside of politics, the Turks are very tolerant towards the Armenians. Besides that, a meeting of the member countries of the Euro Chambers took place in May in Tbilisi, with the participation of representatives of Turkey headed by Rifat Hisarjlikloghlu. This is where we felt that they have the desire to communicate with us more actively, although I am not excluding that that was all organized on purpose.”
But for the first time those direct contacts changed to intolerant behavior when the Turkish press touched upon the visit of the Armenian delegation. Vardanyan doesn’t exclude that there was political pressure, especially on the presses, on the part of representatives of the Turkish Chamber. Recently there have been more and more debates on the Genocide, Hrant Dink, opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, and other issues. In conditions of the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, there was small talk on the establishment of businessmen relations between the Armenian delegation and their Turkish colleagues. However, the next day the Turkish “Hurriet” and “Milliet” papers expressed themselves rather negatively on the visit of the Armenian delegation and the opening of the border.
“They should step out of the occupied Azeri lands and take back the bill on the genocide…it is necessary for them to know that reconciling with Turkey is much more beneficial for Armenia,” Rifat Hisarjlikloghlu said to “Hurriet”.
“The opening of the border is beneficial for both sides,” says Gagik Vardanyan. “Turkey doesn’t have industry in the east, and the construction sector is growing in Armenia. We can start long-term cooperation and besides that, while going to participate in the Tbilisi congress, the Turkish carriers were crossing the Georgian-Armenian customs border. They had taken a long, hard road to get to Armenia, when they could have immediately entered through the Margara customs points. Even in these conditions, there are some business ties between Armenia and Turkey. In 2006, nearly 95 million dollars worth or products were imported from Turkey, and there was 2.3 million dollars worth of exports. In the case of opening the border, the circulation will at least double.”
Vardanyan doesn’t take seriously the announcements according to which in the case of opening the border, cheap Turkish products will flood the small Armenian market and kill the local producer. On the contrary; he finds that in that case not only will the Armenian consumer win, but also the producer. The import of Turkish products will force the Armenian producer to compete, provide higher quality and why not, even lower prices. In addition to that, Armenia may also increase its exports. Armenia can export cement and stone to Turkey, as Turkey especially needs cement. Importing cement from Armenia is beneficial for Turkey because our countries border each other. In the case of cement, the optimal distance for transfer is 300 kilometers, but there is one thing in which the Turkish authorities are perhaps correct – the opening of the border is more necessary for Armenia. First of all, with that Armenia will have a second path to take towards establishing relations with the world. Secondly, commercial relations with Turkey will force the Armenian producer to compete and provide higher quality and compel Armenian importers, especially the monopolist importers, to fix more “reasonable” prices. It is no secret that Armenian businessmen get huge profits from imports because they raise the price of the imported product by several times after they receive it. That is what they do when they have no competitors. If the borders open and commercial relations come into full swing, Armenian monopolists will be compelled to give up a part of their huge profits.