Ismail Gulle, Chairman of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM), stated that he believes that the relations between Turkey and Russia will go further by trade diplomacy and that the annual export to this country, which is $4.5 billion, will exceed $10 billion.
TIM President Ismail Gulle, in his speech at the “Russia Automotive Digital Sectoral Trade Delegation” program organized online by the Uludag Automotive Industry Exporters Association (OIB) under the coordination of the Ministry of Trade and TIM, said that as field soldiers of the export family, they brought Turkish exporters together with more than 4 thousand buyers from all over the world on digital platforms.
Stating that the world trade was far from catching the performance before the epidemic, Gulle stated that they signed an export record in 5 of the last 6 months, and continued as follows:
“This is the basis of our exports of over $100 billion in the last 6 months. Every day, we reach more exporters and buyers with our virtual trade delegations, and we lay the foundation for new export opportunities. Hopefully, thanks to all these efforts, we will complete the year 2021, above our $184 billion target, even at the level of $200 billion.”
Referring to the relations between Turkey and Russia, Gulle stated that the mutual investments between the two countries exceeded the level of $20 billion.
Stating that Russia is in an important position for regional peace and stability with its population of more than 144 million, its geostrategic location, deep-rooted history and economic size, Gulle said, “I believe that with the trade diplomacy, deep relations between the two countries will go further in foreign trade, and we will move our exports from $4.5 billion to over $10 billion as soon as possible.”
Ismail Gulle noted that Russia is a country with a foreign trade deficit due to imports in the energy field.
Therefore, Gulle pointed out that Turkey should focus on the sectors where the potential to increase its exports to Russia is high and said, “Although there is a huge potential in Russia in our automotive sector, we see that the export figures do not reach sufficient levels. Hopefully, this figure will reach billions of dollars in the coming years with our virtual trade delegation that we have opened today.”
2021 EXPORT TARGET IN AUTOMOTIVE IS $30 BILLION
OIB President Baran Celik stated that the automotive industry, which has been the sectoral export champion of the last 15 years, has realized about 1 in 5 of Turkey’s exports by itself.
Stating that Turkey, Europe’s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, is also the world’s 14th and Europe’s 4th largest motor vehicle manufacturer, Celik shared the following:
“We set the export target of the automotive industry as $30 billion with the aim of returning to the numbers before the pandemic in 2021. Our exports increased by 34% in the January-April period and amounted to $10.2 billion. Last year, our figures were quite low due to the pandemic in March and April. This year, we are experiencing high rates of increases for this reason, but it is not possible to say that everything is going well. From time to time, countries resort to closure measures. Therefore, recovery is slow in European markets.”
He explained that they faced new problems such as steel, semiconductor chip crisis, problems in raw material supply and rising commodity prices.
Stating that the average export in the first four months of the year was $2.5 billion, Celik emphasized that they believe that they will reach their year-end target despite all the negativities.
Sharing Turkey’s automotive exports to Russia, Celik said:
“Russia is the 8th country in the supply industry to which we export the most. Our supply industry exports to this country amounted to approximately $400 million in 2020. The share of the supply industry in our total automotive exports to Russia is 83%. Russia’s supply industry imports are around $10 billion and Turkey ranks 7th in Russia’s supply industry imports.”
Baran Celik added that 26 companies from Turkey and 45 companies from Russia participated in the online bilateral business meetings, which will continue until May 28.
Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz