Mehmet Altinbas and Tuna Arinci, representatives of the Turkish Automobile Exporters’ Association and Dan Ruby and John George of OVIN.
A delegation of Türkiye’s leading automotive parts manufacturers held a one-day business-to-business event at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto, Ontario, on Wednesday, looking to strengthen bilateral trade between the two countries.
The contingent was led by Tuna Arinci, Group President at Valeo in Türkiye, and also acting on behalf of the Turkish Automotive Industry Exporters’ Association. It included 15 manufacturers that supply components for passenger cars, buses, heavy-duty vehicles and construction machinery.
“Our objective is to bring Canadian companies and Turkish companies together,” said Arinci in an interview with Canadian auto dealer. “We need to make such an effort to increase our exports with several countries. Canada is one of them.”
Representatives from 25 Canadian companies registered to attend the event.
Türkiye exports to 200 countries and was the second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in Europe in 2024 and the 13th largest motor vehicle manufacturer in the world. It totalled $37.2 billion in total automotive exports last year.
Arinci said Türkiye’s automotive relationship with Canadian companies is not significant at this point, which was another reason for the event.
“If you see the Canadian population with 40 million and the GDP in this country, I see we have a really good opportunity to increase our exports,” said Arinci.
Mehmet Altinbas and Tuna Arinci, representatives of the Turkish Automobile Exporters’ Association
Yusuf Jamal Ak, Secretary General of the Canadian branch of MUSIAD, an independent industrialists businessmen’s association established in Türkiye with more than 16,000 members in more than 90 countries worldwide, said his organization tries to generate economic opportunities. He said the automotive event is one example of bringing Turkish delegates to Canada.
“This is a highly specific one,” said Ak, referring to the auto industry. “In trade relations between Türkiye and Canada, there is room for improvement. We want to increase the volume of the trade between the two countries. We believe the automotive industry can be a very strong way to do that.”
Dan Ruby, Director, Sector and Regional Development Manager for the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network, and his colleague John George, Sector Lead, Automotive & Mobility Innovation, attended the event as part of strategic discussions with the overall delegation. Ruby said OVIN is in the early stages of exploring potential partnerships with Türkiye.
“Part of the role that OVIN plays is helping to support Ontario companies to enter global markets,” said Ruby. “We look to form partnerships and memorandums of understanding with international partners where we can provide access to their markets for our companies and then we in turn give access to our market. It’s kind of like a two-way bridge.”
“Our ultimate goal is to build Ontario’s economy and we do that by strengthening the companies that are here, and by doing that, like tends to attract like. You’ll see international companies coming into Ontario because of what they’re seeing happening here in the future of transportation and automotive, so they tend to look to us to come in. That would potentially be the case with Turkish companies as well,” he said.
