Oklahoma, as seen in the eyes of Turkish-Americans

Turkish businessmen here in Oklahoma are aiming to establish a bridge for the trade, to contribute in the improvement of trading volume and in the betterment of the relationship between Oklahoma and Turkey. Although Turkish businessmen are not so many in Oklahoma, they are pretty active. In 2011, Turkish-Oklahoman businessmen established a Turkish-American Chamber of Commerce and made a first step with aforementioned goals. That chamber communicates with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to bring Turkish businessmen here. It also assists U.S. businessmen who would like to set up business in Turkey.

We believe that there is no reason for Oklahoma not to become a global competitor over the years. As a state, Oklahoma has numerous advantages to make her a nationwide competitor such as being centrally located, holding invaluable expertise in oil and gas drilling and the existence of vocational schools that produce a qualified labor force. If these advantages are utilized and improved, the path to become a global competitor will be open.

Certainly this is not an easy task. It just requires taking a variety of action in several areas. First of all, the nationwide trips that are arranged by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce can be improved to establish cooperation with the overseas chambers of commerce. In that sense, we need to give more importance to our state's advertising. Another item is that, currently, we don't have any substantial and large scale international business fair held in Oklahoma. We believe that it is crucial to determine effective business sectors and motivate them to organize these kinds of international business fairs. In order to do that, we can determine countries, get in touch with their chamber of commerce, invite businessmen over and have them meet with Oklahoma businessmen.

Orhan Kucukosman is executive director of Raindrop Turkish House, Oklahoma chapter. He can be reached at Osman@turkishhouse.org.