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The US Chamber of Commerce has said that the country’s private sector has raised more than $110 million for earthquake relief for Türkiye as the USA-Türkiye Business Forum convenes in Washington, DC.
As the business people, diplomats and representatives from Türkiye and the United States gathered for the forum in the capital of the United States on Monday, a minute of silence was held by the participants to honor the victims of the February 6 earthquakes.
In his opening remarks, Khush Choksy, Senior Vice President of the US Chamber of Commerce for Middle East and Türkiye Affairs, said that nearly 200 companies together contributed over $110 million to the initial phase of the recovery efforts.
Recalling US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting last week with the Chamber to talk about the support for the people of Türkiye after the devastating earthquakes, Choksy said that this is a “critical time” to build the business relationship between the US and Turkey.
Rifat Hisarciklioglu, President of the Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchange of Türkiye, for his part, said that the region that was hit by an earthquake is among “the economically significant regions of Türkiye”, especially in terms of industry and agriculture sectors.
Adding that thousands of search and rescue teams from 90 countries have come to help Türkiye, he said: “We are also grateful for the solidarity of the US Chamber of Commerce, US business, the US government and the international community.”
Turkish Trade Minister Mehmet Mus also addressed the forum, saying that Türkiye “has used all state resources and means for immediate relief and recovery.”
“From now on, our priority is to make the necessary preparations and build safe residential areas with their pre-earthquake infrastructure, roads, hospitals, schools, houses and workplaces, and so on,” he added.
He said that Türkiye’s larger industrial facilities and small and medium-sized enterprises in the region have been affected by the earthquakes.
“We are conducting a comprehensive screening to identify the full impact of the disaster on such enterprises,” he said.
“We are committed to recovering our losses in the shortest possible time and we will bring our people to their daily life,” he said, adding that the next step will be to “rebuild our cities”.