2024 SelectUSA Investment Summit sees banner Turkish participation

By Dilara Zengin

WASHINGTON (AA) – This year’s just-concluded SelectUSA Investment Summit featured the participation of one of the largest Turkish delegations ever, in a testament to the “tremendous” business ties between Türkiye and the US, said Julie Eadeh, US consul general to Istanbul, on Thursday.

Eadeh told Anadolu in an interview at the event that some 30 Turkish firms with 65 participants attended the June 23-26 summit in Washington, DC, a gathering for promoting investment opportunities in the US.

Eadeh said they hosted a “digital dialogue” for US and Turkish companies in Istanbul back in March, and the Trade Winds business development forum of 120 US firms was held in Istanbul for the first time in 16 years, calling the metropolis a “global gateway.”

“The bilateral (Turkish-US) trade volume is nearly $40 billion, and this is (going) really well, on our way to the $100 billion trade goal set by President (Joe) Biden and by President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, so, I think that the momentum is just phenomenal,” she said.

The sectors with the most potential are aerospace, manufacturing, infrastructure, medical technology, healthcare, smart cities, and clean technology, she said.

On a US Defense Department ammunition facility established in the US state of Texas in collaboration with a Turkish firm, Eadeh said when it becomes operational the facility will produce almost one-third of all ammunition made in the US.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul