"Media organs, TV channels, journalists, local media organs such as GDToday, I think you have an important responsibility and your contribution would be very much helpful to that end (stimulate mutual exchange)," Dr. İsmail Hakkı Musa, Ambassador of Türkiye to China, told GDToday at the 5th World Media Summit in Guangzhou on December 3. He said he believes that more dialogues and exchanges need to be conducted to boost Sino-Turkish mutual understanding via media.
Communication between China and Türkiye needs improvement via media
"The communication between human beings first, but beyond that, communication between media organizations, between newspapers, between news agencies, became really important as we are going into a post-modern era of globalization," said Dr. Musa.
He said he believes that it's important to bring together relevant people to spread relevant truth based on real messages, like this summit, and that's what people often miss nowadays.
China and Türkiye, two ancient civilizations connected by the Silk Road, have established diplomatic relations for more than 50 years.
"Our friendship with China may be several times older than the age of some young states today." On this fertile ground, the Ambassador expressed his optimism about enhancing cooperation across various sectors, including economics, trade, science, academic cooperation, and political cooperation.
However, he also pointed out that China and Türkiye are still not well-known enough to each other at present, and there's still a need for better mutual understanding. Therefore, the two countries can stimulate and encourage friendly debate and try to expand it at the local level. Media organizations like GDToday can play a significant role in promoting dialogue and understanding, according to Dr. Musa.
Guangdong plays an active role in strengthening China-Türkiye cooperation
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Türkiye was one of the first countries to support this initiative. In October 2015, the Chinese and Turkish governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding to integrate the BRI with the Middle Corridor Initiative to inject new momentum into the cooperation between the two countries.
It's reported that China is currently Türkiye's third-largest trading partner. In 2022, bilateral trade reached 38.55 billion U.S. dollars, up 12.6 percent year on year, according to the statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.
Dr. Musa stated that in Türkiye, more than 1,200 Chinese companies are operating in logistics, infrastructure, manufacturing, telecommunications, and other sectors, including AVIC, Huawei, and Shanghai Electric Power.
At the same time, he noted that "the biggest companies in Türkiye in every sector," covering energy, tourism, manufacturing, industries, and the food industry, have set up their branches in China, and Guangdong is one of the top regions in China for the establishment of these branches.
"The region (Guangdong) offers many business opportunities, not only at the regional but the country level as well," said Dr. Musa, "This is the reason why a considerable number of Turkish companies are established in this region, in Guangdong and in Guangzhou."
Dr. Musa used Burger King as an example. This Turkish brand has more than 1,500 stores in China, with two headquarters in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. "We want to see even more examples like this in the coming years," he added.
"The communication on both sides, the awareness on both sides, is very visible, and it's increasing in a dynamic way. We have to encourage it," Dr. Musa furthered.
In addition to economic and trade cooperation, Dr. Musa is also looking forward to enhancing people-to-people exchanges between Guangdong and Türkiye in such fields as tourism.
"You have direct flights from Guangzhou to Istanbul by Turkish Airlines every day. This is a chance." He also believes that the initiation of more direct flights from Chinese airlines to Türkiye would present an opportunity to further enhance forward momentum.
Currently, Turkish Airlines operates seven direct flights per week from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, totaling 21 flights on the Chinese mainland. With the resumption of China's outbound tourism market in 2023, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Türkiye in the first eight months of this year has recovered to 47% of that in 2019.
Reporters: Monica, Holly
Video: Qin Shaolong
Poster: Mia
Editor: Nan, James
Hannah also contributed to the story.
