PM officially opens office in Turkey

PM Group has today expanded its operation in Turkey with the official opening of a new regional office in Ankara. The announcement was made during the Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Turkey, led by Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore.

Opening the new office, the Tanaiste said, “Turkey is a key target market for Irish companies. As the Turkish economy continues to grow, so too do the opportunities for Irish companies to deepen their involvement in this market and win new business. This new office is a symbol of the increasing success that PM Group is having in the Turkish market and it is a credit to PM Group’s staff here in Turkey as well as back in Ireland that so much progress has been made in the Turkish market in such a relatively short time frame”.

‘PM Group has secured three EU-funded consultancy contracts in Turkey worth €15 million. Under a deal with the Turkish Ministry of Trade and Industry, the company will begin work next month on a contract to supervise the construction of a business incubation facility in a new Technology Development Zone in Kayseri’ said Liam Phelan, PM Group Sector Director for International Financial Institutions, in an interview with the Sunday Business Post.

In a separate agreement with the Ministry of Environment, the company will also shortly begin to prepare EU funding applications for nine municipal waste management facilities in 15 Turkish cities.  PM Group is already supervising the construction of nine immigration centres under a third contract with the Turkish Ministry of the Interior.  Liam Phelan said the company has a growing presence in Turkey, where he said it was working for five ministries in total. ‘PM Group is one of the leading Irish companies currently undertaking EU-funded contracts in Turkey.’ he said.

Liam added that the company had been providing consultancy services for more than 15 years for EU-funded projects in countries including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Romania and Bulgaria.  More recently, he said PM Group had begun work on similar projects in ASEAN countries including Vietnam and Laos for the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Irish Minister for Trade and Investment Joe Costello, who led a recent Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Turkey said the country offered  ‘compelling growth opportunities’ to Irish companies like PM Group. ‘Turkey is expected to be the fastest growing OECD economy between 2011 and 2017,’ he said. ‘Turkey is already a significant trading partner, with our combined trade worth over €1 billion.’

Commenting on the ongoing development of PM Group’s international footprint, Dave Murphy, CEO of PM Group said: “This year PM Group celebrates 40 years in business and we now have multi-disciplinary teams of over 1,800 people across Europe, Asia, the USA and the Middle East. We have been operating in Turkey for a number of years and it is a very dynamic economy with lots of opportunities in the private and public sector. Our new office in Ankara will improve the working environment for our team in Turkey and allow us to better serve our growing client base”.