Dear Members and Colleagues

On Friday, October 21st, 2011, the Istanbul Hilton Hotel hosted ABFT's annual press meeting, announcing the 5th annual " Business and Investment Climate in Turkey " survey made with the participation of 91 senior executives from leading U.S. companies. The 2011 survey polled 91 executive of US companies from 26 different industry sectors that broadly represent the foreign investments in Turkey; including logistics, innovative pharmaceuticals, energy, food and finance.The participant press institutions included Anadolu Haber Ajansı, Reuters, Bloomberg, HaberTürk, Dünya Gazetesi,Türkiye Gazetesi, Dünya, Yeni Hayat. Speakers at the event included Rahsan Cebe – Chair of the Board at ABFT, Dr.Murat Asık – Member of the Board at ABFT, Günsan Çetin-ABFT Member & Chair of the Turkish side of the Turkish-American Business Council established by President Gül & President Obama, Serra Bozkurt – Gfk Group Manager and Prof. Dr. Ilter Turan – Professor of Political Sciences at Bilgi University .

Rahsan Cebe, Chair of ABFT, made her remarks with a general summary of the economic findings. She emphasized that if Turkey could achieve a better business environment, US companies would invest in Turkey more, and as ABFT, members wanted more trade between 2 countries. Dr. Murat Asık spoke of the macroeconomic and microeconomic developments and summarized three important take home messages from the survey. He emphasized the importance of transparency, dialogue and predictability in improving business environment and trade between 2 countries. Gunsan Cetin emphasized that the main purpose in all the collaborations taking place is to enhance the business opportunities between the biggest economy in the World (US) and the fastest growing economy in the World (Turkey). It was a well attended event with huge coverage in the media and a live TV show just after the press event. We believe it was very useful in promoting ABFT as the representative of US Chamber of Commerce in Turkey, taking a place at the table of policy discussions.

We would like to thank all our members for their contribution in our survey, thus in achieving this result.

Best Regards,

ABFT

American Business Forum in Turkey