EVALUATION OF THE ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL COOPERATION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION OF TURKIC STATES ON THE WAY TO THE UNION OF THE TURKIC WORLD STEP BY STEP

The organization cooperates in 28 different fields including political, customs, economic, and cultural fields by the common history, language, identity, culture, and vision of 2040

Established in 2009 as an intergovernmental organization, the main goal of the Turkic World Organization is to promote comprehensive cooperation among Turkic states. The Organization of Turkic States, of which Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are members and Hungary, Turkmenistan, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) are observers, establishes partnerships with international institutions and organizations such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations Development Program.

The Organization, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, has organized important summits, signed agreements, and taken important steps towards this goal over the past 15 years. At the current stage, cooperation is taking place in 28 different fields, including political, customs, economic, and cultural, in line with the common history, language, identity, culture, and vision of 2040. From a theoretical and historical perspective, the two most important areas of this cooperation were political and economic. These two areas are followed by other areas of cooperation. In the development of our collaboration with the Turkic states, economic and trade cooperation occupies an important place along with political cooperation. The economic cooperation of the organization is based on mutual benefit and economic integration of the members among themselves and with the world.

At the 7th Summit, which will be held in Baku in 2019, commitments were made to promote mutual trade and investment, as well as to increase cooperation in the private sector. It was agreed to establish a Turkish Investment Fund in Baku in 2021. The fund, with an initial capital of $500 million, is expected to fill an important gap in ensuring integration among member countries and increasing mutual trade and investment.

At the Samarkand Summit in November 2022, the ‘Trade Facilitation Strategy Paper’ was adopted with the aim of increasing trade figures among member states. The document aims to simplify and harmonize trade and customs procedures, reduce trade costs, and speed up the clearance of goods. The Turkic World Business Forums and B2B meetings organized among the member states are another tool to promote cooperation among the member states. In total, 6 Business Councils and 5 Forums brought together more than 500 business representatives and took important initiatives to increase bilateral trade and investment. The establishment of ‘Turkish Trade Houses’ based on the Azerbaijani model is another important tool that will help member states increase their trade volumes, facilitate export processes, and strengthen each other’s markets. The Turkish Business Portal is designed as an online platform that will virtually eliminate the physical, bureaucratic, and linguistic barriers that hinder trade between Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of the member states.

The platform will enable SMEs to communicate instantly without intermediaries, gather information, offer trade potentials, and consolidate activities currently scattered in various other forums into a single web portal. Thus, facilitating communication and centralizing the necessary information, will greatly facilitate an increase in the speed and volume of business interactions. The Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI), headquartered in İstanbul and established in 2019, is the main mechanism of economic cooperation under the organization and is responsible for developing sustainable business programs and projects to increase trade among member states.

In addition to these tools for increasing bilateral economic and trade relations between member states, improving existing cooperation in the fields of customs and transportation, focusing on multilateral energy policies, developing cooperation among diasporas, and cooperation in the fields of agriculture, space industry, and human resources stand out as areas that will contribute significantly to the integration of economic and commercial life. On the other hand, the green and digital transformations observed in the global arena, especially after 2020, and the new economic order they require, stand out as one of the main components of cooperation between member states.

Another concept that has gained importance at the global level after the pandemic is transport and logistics. The Middle Corridor, which is one of the three routes of the Belt and Road Project and will provide access to the western markets of the Asian countries that are at the forefront of production, especially China, will also play an important role in the integration of the Turkic states of Central Asia into the global economy. While ensuring the economic integration among the members of the Organization of Turkic States, it is valuable in this sense to turn to joint investments, joint regulations, and cooperation to make the Central Corridor functional.

Another important corridor of interest to the Turkic world is the Zengezur Corridor, which will connect Azerbaijan and Türkiye by rail. The corridor will serve as a bridge between Central Asia and Europe and will play an important role in global trade. The Organization of Turkic States occupies an important place in the global economy with a population of 178 million and an economic size of nearly $2 trillion. Its total exports amount to $558 billion, which is 2 percent of world trade. Exports between members, on the other hand, accelerated from $33 billion in 2022 to $42 billion in 2023. Any initiative by the member countries to increase economic integration, mutual investment, and trade among themselves will contribute to a significant increase in these figures and the weight of the region in the global economy and will provide a significant advantage to the member countries in this sense.