Top Albayrak Group figures welcomed a delegation from Pakistan and discussed how to bolster ties between the two nations
A delegation of nearly 80 politicians and reporters headed by Pakistan’s Istanbul envoy Bilal Khan Pasha visited Turkey’s Albayrak Group, which operates in various Pakistani cities, on Sunday. Albayrak Board Member Nuri Albayrak stated that 13,000 Pakistanis were involved in Albayrak’s activities carried out in Pakistan.
Group Chairman of the Board Ahmet Albayrak, Board of Directors members Nuri and Mesut Albayrak, CEO Ömer Bolat, Piri Media General Manager Ömer Karaca and former General Manager of the Higher Education Student Loan and Housing Board Hasan Albayrak hosted the delegation.
“We conduct waste management and environmental cleaning as well as operate the metrobus, public buses and taxis in four of Pakistan’s cities. We employ 13,000 Pakistanis,” said Albayrak Board Member Nuri Albayrak.
“These are the activities we conduct as a result of winning official tenders open to national and international competition. If there are international tenders for similar activities in other cities in Pakistan, we would like to operate in those cities too,” he added.
“Following our work in Pakistan, we won tenders to operate ports in Somalia and Guinea. We are pleased to serve the people of Pakistan and contribute to Pakistan’s development. Our Pakistani employees are hardworking. Pakistani state administration, bureaucracy, laws, and procedures are very efficient. There are 25 Turks and 13,000 Pakistanis at our firm there. If we have pleased the Pakistani people in terms of environmental cleaning, waste collection, and transportation, then we are very happy,” Albayrak said.
“We aim to contribute in order to increase the prosperity of the people of Pakistan. According to economic developments, we have plans to increase our investments in new areas. Turkey and Pakistan are two friendly and allied countries. The religious and social values, culture and fate of the Turkish and Pakistani people are united. Our national flags are even similar due to the crescent and stars. Turkey and Pakistan, the two countries, are like one nation. I hope that, like the political relations between the two allied countries, our economic relations will also reach much greater targets. Both sides should work diligently for this purpose,” Albayrak said.
“We are a group of seven partners, who are all siblings. Our father started with construction. Then we developed in the services and logistics sector as well as personnel and passenger transportation, waste collection and management, and port operation. We focused on the industrial sector with the production of military and police uniforms, textiles, tractors, diesel engines, tank engines, casting and environmental cleaning tools. In 2018, we started sugar production with two sugar factories,” Albayrak said.
Hopefully at the beginning of 2019, we will launch our paper mill with an investment of 150 million euros. We have been one of the leading media organizations in the field of newspaper and television broadcasting, as well as our 12 monthly magazines and digital publishing, for 20 years. We are a big family with a total of 20,000 employees. In the past, we have conducted activities in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Iraq,” he added.
Albayrak Group CEO Ömer Bolat dubbed the visit as sincere and productive, saying: “We are trying to bolster economic ties in addition to our brotherhood. The delegation invited us to invest in all regions of Pakistan and share our experiences in the industry and services sector. We discussed our ongoing activities that started in 2011 in four of Pakistan’s cities. We told them that we have been pleased to contribute to Pakistan's economic development for eight years. Pakistan’s prosperity is Turkey’s prosperity. Turkey’s prosperity is Pakistan’s prosperity.”
