Turkic nations set to cooperate in fintech business

By Ali Canberk Ozbugutu and Emirhan Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) – Türkiye aims to develop institutional infrastructure and financial technologies (fintech) across Turkic nations, the head of Türkiye’s Finance Office told Anadolu.

A signing event for the Turkic fintech cooperation platform was held in Istanbul on Wednesday with the participation of representatives from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

Goksel Asan, the office’s head, said this new addition to already ongoing cooperation efforts among Turkic nations would “reinforce the unity” among the countries.

Asan said some Turkic nations are not up to par when it comes to fintech, and it is important to share Türkiye’s progress with them, as he said an ease of transactions across Turkic states is needed.

“The more we can increase transactions and cooperation between ourselves, the more we will bring the Turkic world together,” he said.

Ufuk Bilgetekin, who chairs Türkiye’s Payment and Electronic Money Institutions Association (TODEB), told Anadolu after the signing event that as the world is increasingly globalizing and digitalizing, fintech has come to the fore.

Bilgetekin said Türkiye has a powerful infrastructure, as well as innovative fintech solutions.

“We wanted to gather Turkic nations around us to be united and focus on cooperation. Our aim is to orchestrate more such events and seminars, and focus on building standardized licenses, gathering all the fintech operation structures among five Turkic nations under a single ecosystem to become a key player in the global fintech industry,” he said.

“When we look at the fintech systems in other countries, Türkiye is ahead of many European and other nations, which we’re proud about, and now we’re working at full speed with other Turkic nations to make Türkiye’s fintech ecosystem a hub,” he added.

To do that, Bilgetekin said the group will attend the Singapore FinTech Festival in November with 11 member organizations to showcase Türkiye’s fintech ecosystem.

“We established the TODEB Academy to train human resources in addition to our apprentice program in collaboration with Türkiye’s Marmara University – we will ensure the growth of our fintech sector and make sure to make Türkiye a fintech hub,” he said.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim