WE WILL BUILD THE “TURKISH CENTURY” TOGETHER

I sincerely believe that we will build the “Turkish Century” together to ensure a brighter future for our country and further strengthen our position in the world economy

Turkish Minister of Trade Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat answered our question for Business Diplomacy readers.

AS WE APPROACH THE END OF 2023, CONSIDERING THE EFFECTS OF THE CONTRACTION IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE IMPORT AND EXPORT FIGURES AND THE ECONOMY OF OUR COUNTRY?

Recent reports published by the OECD, the World Bank, and the IMF on the global economy indicate that tight monetary policy and the post-pandemic recovery that has fallen short of expectations are slowing global growth, while uncertainty in global commodity markets, high inflation, rising energy prices, food security and ongoing problems in the supply chain have a negative impact on global demand.

As a matter of fact, in the “World Economic Outlook Report” recently published by the IMF, global economic growth projections for 2023 were maintained at 3 percent, while those for 2024 were reduced to 2.9 percent, and global inflation was emphasized. The 2023 forecast for the volume of trade in goods and services was also revised downwards significantly. The forecast for the growth rate of global trade in goods and services, which was projected to increase by 2 percent in the July report, has been lowered to 0.9 percent.

We are taking firm steps towards the target of 255 billion dollars for our exports for 2023 in the Medium Term Program (MTP)

Despite the unfavorable course of the world economy and the severe earthquakes we experienced in February, macroeconomic indicators and our export performance clearly demonstrate the resilience of our economy. We see that the fiscal and monetary policy measures as well as the liberalization steps in the financial sector are having a positive impact on our economy. With 3.9 percent growth in the first quarter and 3.8 percent growth in the second quarter, Türkiye has maintained its uninterrupted growth performance for 12 quarters. Similarly, we are facing a pleasing picture in our exports.

Our exports, which amounted to 254.2 billion dollars in 2022 and reached 187.5 billion dollars in the January-September period of 2023, have once again demonstrated its dynamic and strong structure. Our share in world exports rose to 1.03 percent (annualized) in the first two quarters of 2023. As a country, although we are experiencing difficulties in growth, production, and foreign trade due to the global conjuncture and the earthquake, we have managed to overcome all these uncertainties with our proactive, dynamic, and result-oriented economic and export policy tools.

In the Medium Term Program (MTP), we are taking firm steps towards the target of 255 billion dollars for our exports in 2023. Our import policies prioritize the strategy of supporting the investment, production, and export chain. With the recent economic measures, import policies, and the emphasis on domestic procurement, our imports have entered a downward trend. In the January-September period, imports increased by 1.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 274 billion 755 million dollars.

I believe that the most fundamental structural transformation area that will contribute to achieving our macroeconomic targets is the permanent improvement in the current account. In other words, exports will once again be at the heart of economic policies in the period ahead. In this context, we will show a determined and firm will to remove the obstacles that stand in our way, and we will continue to implement reforms that will enable us to benefit from the change and transformation that the global economy is undergoing.

CONSIDERING THE WORLD ECONOMIC INDICATORS, WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR 2024? HOW WILL TÜRKIYE BE POSITIONED?

In 2023, despite the current political and economic uncertainties and difficulties, we, as the Ministry of Trade, are entering the “Century of Türkiye” by structuring our existing policies in line with the global conjuncture and designing new policies. We will continue to implement our support to provide practical solutions to our exporters, from promotion and marketing activities to e-export, from access to finance to green transformation, to increase our country’s share in world trade steadily, ensuring sustainability in production, increasing our value-added exports, integrating our companies into the value-added stages of global value chains, and accelerating e-export transformation.

In addition, taking into account the conjuncture in the global economy and foreign trade, we will continue our projects and activities for emerging economies such as the “Far Countries Strategy” and the “Export Development Strategy for Islamic Countries” to move our export range further and to take our horizons even further, by keeping up with the requirements of the age.

Our main priorities will be to minimize the current vulnerabilities of the economy; to use the factors of production more effectively, to further improve the investment environment, and to ensure the necessary technological and innovative transformation to increase unit prices in exports. In the Twelfth Development Plan period covering the 2024-2028 period, the main priority is to increase the growth potential of the Turkish economy by utilizing its existing resources in the most efficient manner.

In this context, with a production structure that focuses on efficiency and competitiveness, a stable export-led growth in which the industrial sector plays a leading role by increasing its interaction with the agricultural and services sectors, and a fair sharing of increased welfare are targeted. It is envisaged that the growth rate will be realized at an average annual rate of 5.0 percent during the Plan period and that Türkiye will enter the class of high-income countries by reaching a per capita income of US$ 17,554 by the end of the Plan period.

National income per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms is targeted to exceed 58 thousand dollars. On the other hand, we launched the “Export Development Strategy for Islamic Countries” to realize our export potential with Islamic countries. Recent significant developments in economic and trade relations with Islamic countries, parİhticularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, provide an important opportunity for the success of the Strategy. With this Strategy, we aim to increase the 26 percent share of Islamic countries in our exports to 30 percent by 2028. In addition, within the scope of the “2028 Export Promotion and Marketing Vision”, we will organize a sector-based promotion and marketing strategy and carry out activities to further strengthen the image of Turkish goods and services by addressing promotional activities with a target country-target sector-oriented, regular and continuous approach.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE MINISTRY OF TRADE TO INCREASE EXPORTS AND SIMILAR ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE TRADE WITH COUNTRIES?

In order to make the wheels of our country’s economy turn faster, our Ministry is implementing new projects and supports in line with the requirements of the digitalization era and the needs and demands of our exporters, taking into account global economic developments. In this direction, in order to increase our share in world exports by ensuring sustainable export growth, we support exporters at all levels, starting from SMEs, in every stage and every step of exports, from export preparation to marketing, from design to becoming suppliers to global companies, from promotion to fair participation, from establishing overseas distribution channels to becoming a global brand.

On the other hand, we support the participation of more than 1,500 international fairs in 80 different countries in order to promote Turkish goods in the Middle East, Africa, the Far East, and the four corners of the world and to improve our bilateral trade relations, and we organize more than 250 procurement and trade delegation programs to 60 different countries. We also aim to provide pioneering innovations in the digital economy by developing an “e-Export Support Package” that makes e-export easier, faster, and more reliable in order to increase the interaction of our exporters in the digital world.

Within the scope of the European Green Deal, our Ministry closely follows the legislative work in the process of harmonization with the sustainable and circular economy. In addition to our traditional export supports, we are implementing a strong e-export support package to enable exporters to include e-commerce channels, through which they can directly touch their customers abroad, among their export models, and thus add value to their exports with continuously innovative products.

On the other hand, with the special importance our Ministry attaches to the IT and software sector, we have implemented the E-Turquality program exclusively for this sector. With this support program, which we have created for companies in R&D-intensive, high-tech, and high value-added sectors, we aim to carry our country’s IT sector to a much higher level and to be able to export 5 billion dollars by the end of 2023.

As a result, we will maintain and improve our competitiveness in our exports, which are the locomotive of our economy, with our efforts that center on high-tech and value-added production, innovation, branding and design, digital and green transformation, and we will continue our efforts to turn the risks of the 21st century into opportunities.

HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE STEPS TAKEN BY TÜRKIYE TO INCREASE BILATERAL RELATIONS BETWEEN TÜRKİYE AND THE AFRICAN CONTINENT?

As the Ministry of Trade, we attach importance to being present everywhere in the world in all the policies we are currently implementing and will implement, and we are taking steps to improve our trade relations even with countries in the most remote corners of the world.

In this direction, we continue to develop and deepen our deep-rooted and strong historical ties with the countries of the continent in terms of trade and economy with our “Strategy for the Development of Trade and Economic Relations with African Countries” implemented by our Ministry since 2003. As a matter of fact, we increased our trade volume with African countries from 5.4 billion dollars in 2003 to 41 billion dollars in 2022.

We believe that the continent’s rapidly growing population and increasing demands will create significant opportunities for trade and investments in the coming period. In this context, in addition to our ongoing Strategy, we designed actions to increase our exports of goods and services to African countries by including the Republic of South Africa and Nigeria in the “Far Countries Strategy” we shared with the public last year, and included Ethiopia, the Republic of South Africa, Nigeria, Libya and Egypt among the “Target Countries” we have identified for the 2022-2023 period.

In the coming period, as the Ministry of Trade, we will continue to move forward with determination to further develop our relations with African countries, which are our important trade partners, in line with the principle of “Win Together”.

WHAT KIND OF AN IMPETUS WILL THE TÜRKİYE-AFRICA IV. BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC FORUM GIVE TO THE COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH THE AFRICAN CONTINENT?

In order to improve trade relations with Africa, the Ministry has established bilateral and multilateral contacts with African countries with increasing frequency. In addition to bilateral official visits, close relations with the region have been established through the Türkiye-Africa Partnership Summits launched in 2008 and the Türkiye-Africa Economic and Business Forums organized since 2016.

The first Türkiye-Africa Economic and Business Forum was held in 2016, the second in 2018, and the third in 2021. In addition, as the Ministry, we organized the Türkiye-Africa Economic and Business Forum online in 2020 in order to keep our relations with Africa alive during the pandemic. We successfully organized the fourth Türkiye-Africa Economic and Business Forum in Istanbul on October 12-13, 2023 under the auspices of our President. In this framework, 4000 private sector participants from 54 African countries and our country came together to participate in panels in different sectors and to hold business meetings.

As a result of our initiatives and the forum, the commercial ties between Türkiye and Africa will be strengthened, contacts and cooperation between Turkish and African business people and investors will increase. We also expect our trade volume, which was 40.7 billion dollars in 2022, to gain momentum and exceed 50 billion dollars in a short time.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ABOUT DEİK’S ACTIVITIES IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA?

At a time when globalization is taking hold and physical barriers are disappearing not only in trade but also in all areas of the economy, political- military tensions in our near geography are disrupting the supply of raw materials and energy, and bringing about global bottlenecks such as high global inflation. These global bottlenecks have made the role of trade diplomacy and in particular private sector-led international relations, even more critical.

The Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK), with its “Business Council” platforms established with its counterpart organizations in almost every country in the world and its unique institutional communication capacity, has shown its ability to be a source of pride for us in these critical times. The presidents and executive board members of DEİK’s 152 Business Councils fulfill their duty of guiding the Turkish business community in the transforming global economy.

DEİK, which continues its activities with the understanding of “Business Diplomacy”, continues to be one of the biggest supporters of our business world under the leadership of Mr. President and under the coordination of our Ministry.