Istanbul chosen for WTC global meet

The Peninsula (Qatar)

5/2/2006 

Doha: The World Trade Centre (WTC) Istanbul has been chosen for this year's annual conference of the World Trade Centre's Association (WTCA).

P A M Sherif, acting general manager, WTC Doha, and Alpaslan Baki Ertekin, general manager of WTC Istanbul (WTCI), said the 37th general assembly of the WTC, will be held in Istanbul from October 28 to November 2.

Speaking to reporters here yesterday, they said WTCA general assembly is held every year in one of the WTCs around the world and WTCI was selected at the 36th annual general assembly held in Shanghai last year.

The WTCA is a non-political, non-governmental trade organization with an aim to foster international trade through the World Trade Centres. The association, founded in 1968, has grown to over 270 member centres located in 76 countries around the world.

The purpose of the visit of WTCI is to promote and introduce the 37th general assembly to the business circles in Qatar and to solicit their support.

"Before I came here I had a look on import and export figure of Qatar and I found that Turkey had no prominent place, so we have to improve that."

He said that he expected 600 people from at least 40 countries to attend the Istanbul event.

The 37th General Assembly will give us a chance to share our accomplishments with the rest of the world. Our 500,000 square meter (sqm) trade complex classified as the biggest WTC around the world, houses the leading fair grounds of Eurasia region stretching over 100,000 sqm land, Alpaslan said.