CEO Max Jadot and Yvan De Cock, Head of Corporate & Public Bank, accompanied by a BNP Paribas Fortis delegation of international business specialists, took part in a recent Belgian trade mission to Turkey led by Prince Philippe.  The mission had a dual aim: to support Belgian companies engaging in investment projects in Turkey, and to outline the attractive opportunities for Turkish businesses investing in Belgium.
  

At the invitation of Varol Civil, CEO of BNP Group Turkish subsidiary TEB, Max Jadot and Yvan De Cock held an exclusive 2-hour meeting with Turkish businesspeople and journalists in Istanbul.  The session included a discussion panel moderated by Levent Çelebioğlu, Head of Corporate Banking at TEB, during which Yvan De Cock, together with Freddy Van den Spiegel from the BNP Paribas Fortis Economic Research unit, joined Albert Wolfs from the Foreign Investment Taxation unit at the Belgian Finance Ministry to discuss the current situation and outlook for the Belgian economy and outline the investment opportunities and tax advantages which Belgium offers to foreign investors. Fellow-panellists Tulû Gürakan, Economic & Trade Advisor at the Turkish Embassy in Brussels, and Pınar Eczacıbaşı, President of the Turkish-Belgium Business Council, talked about their own experiences in and with Belgium.

Varol Civil pointed out that “quite a number of our 500,000 corporate clients in Turkey are interested in the idea of investing in Belgium.  Being able to draw on the support and expertise of a local partner like BNP Paribas Fortis when seeking to establish a presence in the Belgian market offers these companies many advantages above and beyond the purely banking sphere.”  TEB is the sixth-largest private banking institution in Turkey.  It has a broad and diversified product offering, ranging from daily banking to consumer credit, asset management, insurance products and leasing and fleet management services. TEB has 500 branches, employing 10,000 staff and serving 3.5 million clients in 65 towns and cities.

Max Jadot underlined that “the trade mission provided us with many opportunities to explain to foreign businesspeople the many advantages that our country – and the Bank – have to offer. Belgium enjoys a highly strategic geographical location and has one of the most open economies in the world.  By calling on the services of BNP Paribas Fortis, Turkish investors will be able to rely on a financial partner which has deep roots in the Belgian economy and is well able to support their plans and projects."

Yvan De Cock, who was formerly CEO of Fortis Bank Turkey before taking on his current position as Head of Corporate & Public Bank, added: “Our highly-qualified, multilingual staff, coupled with the outstanding logistical infrastructure provided by Belgium’s ports, plus the country’s highly meshed road and rail networks and efficient international airports all constitute major assets for foreign investors.  The Turkish community in Belgium can also serve as a bridge between the two countries. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, today there are around a dozen front-rank Turkish companies with an established presence in Belgium. But the potential is certainly much greater than that and that’s why we took advantage of the trade mission to introduce the Bank and our network to Turkish businesses that are keen to get into the Belgian market or establish a presence in this country.  With our International Business Desk, our 200 Relationship Managers working in 22 Business Centres, plus 70 Corporate Bankers and experts in Project Finance, Export Finance, Corporate Finance and Capital Markets, we’re uniquely placed to help Turkish companies achieve their objectives in Belgium”.