Flemish region calls for Turkish investors

Belgian companies invested $8 billion over 15 years in Turkey while Turks made $320 million in investment in Belgium. Now, Belgium’s Flemish Regional Trade Attaché is preparing to welcome Turkish companies to the Supernova event, one of Europe’s largest technology summits to be held in Antwerp between from September 27-30.

Commercial Attaché Deputy, Ezgi Ceri, said they continued to receive applications for participation at the event, in which Turkish technology, telecom, and automotive companies as well as startups will meet European investment and technology companies.

Leading Turkish companies such as Turkcell and Vestel as well as Koc University’s Entrepreneurship Research Center (KWORKS) and Sabanci Univer- sity’s Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) will be among those presenting at the conference over its first two days, organized in coop- eration with Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK.)

The event will provide networking opportunities for startups to meet European investors and entrepreneurs as well as meetings on nanotechnology and automotive technologies.

Flemish region is the key

“Belgium has a federal structure consisting of three regions: the northern Flemish Region, the capital Brussels and Wallonia Region in the south,” Ceri said. “We represent Turkey in the Flemish Region. This region alone makes up 83.1 percent of total Belgian exports. 58 percent of Belgium’s population lives in this region.”

Belgium, with a population 11.4 million and a $451 billion GDP in 2017, exported $445 billion last year. Exports from the Flemish Region to Turkey in 2017 amounted to 4.88 billion euros, an 18.9 percent increase. Turkish exports to the Flemish Region increased by 14.5 percent to 4.06 billion euros in 2017.