Tuncer Kayalar (born 23 December 1952 in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) is the former

Undersecretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is a ...

of the Prime Ministry for Foreign Trade, and the Former Chairman of the Board of Directors of both Turkish Eximbank and the Export Promotion Center of Turkey.

Personal life and education

Tuncer Kayalar was born in

on 23 December 1952. He is a graduate of the

TED Ankara College TED Ankara College Foundation Schools is a group of private schools in Turkey. It consists of kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools. Its İncek Campus, considered sizeable with 141,000 square meters of enclosed and over 309,000 square ...

and attended the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

and the Ankara Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences earning his degree in international trade. Kayalar is married and has two daughters and grandchildren.

Career

Tuncer Kayalar pursued a bureaucratic career for over 40 years in the areas of bilateral and multilateral economic and commercial relations and

diplomacy Diplomacy is the communication by representatives of State (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, non-governmental institutions intended to influence events in the international syste ...

. He entered civil service as a

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

at the General Secretariat of Foreign Trade, MoC in 1977, and held positions as Director of Section (1986–88), Head of Department (1988–90), Counselor (1995–97), Deputy

Director General A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

(1998-2000) and Director General of Agreements (2000-2002) at the Under secretariat of the Prime Ministry for Foreign Trade. He was assigned on both occasions as a

counselor Counselor or counsellor may refer to: A professional In diplomacy and government * Counsellor of State, senior member of the British royal family to whom the Monarch can delegate some functions in case of unavailability * Counselor (dipl ...

(economic and commercial affairs) to the Turkish Embassy in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, USSR(1982–85), and the Turkish Consulate in New York, USA (1990–95). In 2002, during the presidency of

Ahmet Necdet Sezer Ahmet Necdet Sezer (; born 13 September 1941) is a Turkish statesman and judge who served as the tenth president of Turkey from 2000 to 2007. Previously, he was president of the Constitutional Court of Turkey from January 1998 to May 2000. The ...

, he was appointed as the

of the Prime Ministry for Foreign Trade. Simultaneously, he held the posts as Chairman of the Administrative Boards of Turkish EXIMBANK and the Export Promotion Center (IGEME) of

. Kayalar was one of the leading figures behind Turkey's impressive foreign trade performance and the mastermind of Turkey's Economic and Commercial Development Strategy towards the Sub-Sahara African countries. During his tenure, Kayalar also held membership at the Money-Credit Coordination Council, Science and Technology Supreme Council (TUBİTAK), National Productivity Center Advisory Board,

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (, ) is a government department subordinate to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey). Focusing on development cooperation, TİKA works in more than 150 countries. It also goes by the name Tu ...

(TİKA) and Small and Medium Sized Industry Development and Support Administration. In 2009, during the presidency of

Abdullah Gul Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...

, Kayalar was appointed

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

and Permanent Representative accredited to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(

UN-HABITAT The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settleme ...

and

UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

) in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. He held these posts until 2012 and retired from civil service in 2019. Presently, he is the chairman of the advisory board of a Turkish foreign trade company in

. During his career Kayalar published a number of articles and is the founder of “''The Journal of International Trade and Diplomacy''”. He is the recipient of various awards, namely being selected as the bureaucrat of the year in 2004 by the “''Economists Platform''”, (formation of the leading economists of Turkey) and the same title in 2005 by “ Dünya” a prominent business newspaper. Kayalar is a member of the New Jersey World Trade Council and the TED Ankara College Alumni.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kayalar, Tuncer Living people 1952 births 21st-century Turkish diplomats People from Ankara