Astonishing Turkey: business, tourist opportunities and Anatolian tigers

The eyes follow you wherever you look.  The gaze is bold, beautiful and serene.

But the image is 1,500 years older than the Mona Lisa.

Gaziantep, a city of 1.3 million people close to the Turkish border with Syria, is often called an “Anatolian Tiger” because of its rapid growth over the past few years.  I visited the city recently with the British Chamber of Commerce in Turkey to meet local political leaders and businesses and talk about trade and investment opportunities in the UK. Several things were striking:

– the rapid economic growth of Gaziantep means there are many important businesses and business people looking for trade and investment opportunities with the UK and other countries;

– those businesses could profit from UK expertise in many areas including innovation, education and training, and design;

– UK Trade and Investment can help Turkish and British businesses profit from business opportunities in Gaziantep;

Gaziantep itself is an awesome, ancient city.  It is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited settlements in the world.  Its Zeugma Museum features an incredible display of Roman-era mosaics including the famous “Gypsy Girl” with the mesmerising eyes.  The increasingly-restored city centre is full of impressive historic caravanserais and other splendid structures.  And it is home to a famous culinary tradition of spicy food blending Middle-Eastern and Turkish influences which the world will shortly discover (more on this later if a certain planned investment in London comes off).

Check out Gaziantep – worth a visit for lots of excellent reasons.