“We want to achieve $265-billion worth of exports by the end of the year”
Speaking at the 30th Ordinary General Assembly of Turkish Exporters Assembly and Export Champions Award Ceremony, President Erdoğan said: “Despite the global negative economic outlook, we want to achieve 265 billion-dollar worth of exports by the end of this year, and 285 billion-dollar by the next.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the 30th Ordinary General Assembly of Turkish Exporters Assembly and Export Champions Award Ceremony in Istanbul.
Noting that 2022 went down as the year of records in terms of exports, President Erdoğan said: “Our goods exports have reached 254.2 billion dollars with a 12.9 per cent increase. The share our country has got from the global trade has increased to 1.02%. Our services exports have surpassed 90 billion dollars with a 47.3 per cent increase. Our defense exports have reached 4.3 billion dollars with a nearly 37 per cent increase. The number of our exporting firms has increased by 10%, and reached 114,561.”
“THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE EARTHQUAKES ON OUR ECONOMY ARE WEAKENING”
Drawing attention to the earthquakes that took place on February 6, President Erdoğan stressed that they will make the cities affected by the earthquakes more secure, more dynamic and more prosperous, and added: “Praise be to Allah, the negative impacts of the earthquakes on our economy are weakening each passing day. Despite the fact that we experienced the disaster of the century, our exports maintain their strong course. Our exports increased 14.4% on May year on year, and rose from 18.9 billion dollars to 21.6 billion. Our exports have reached 254.4 billion dollars over the last 12 months. The share of the increase of our middle-high- and high-technology exports in this performance is very valuable to us.”
“WE WILL MARCH TOWARDS OUR GOALS”
Noting that they will reduce the inflation rate to single-digit numbers once again, President Erdoğan went on to say: “The first priority of our new economy administration is the resolution of this matter. We will march towards our goals on the axis of growth through investment, employment, production, exports and current account surplus. We will minimize the burden of energy, our biggest problem in foreign trade, with the Black Sea natural gas, Gabar oil, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and renewable resources.”
Underscoring that although the increase in exports is a positive and important success, it is never enough in terms of the Century of Türkiye vision, President Erdoğan said: “Despite the global negative economic outlook, we want to achieve 265 billion-dollar worth of exports by the end of this year, and 285 billion-dollar by the next. Our goal for 2028 is to achieve 400 billion dollars and more.”
“TÜRKİYE’S STEPS IN FOREIGN POLICY HAVE CONTRIBUTED A LOT TO ITS EXPORTS”
Further stating that Türkiye’s steps in foreign policy over the past 21 years have contributed a lot to its exports, President Erdoğan said: “For instance, while the number of our embassies in Africa increased from 12 to 44, our trade volume rose from 4.3 billion dollars to 40 billion. While the number of our embassies have reached 18, which was 6, in Latin America, our trade volume has increased to 17.4 billion dollars from 800 million. Our trade volume with Asia has increased 40 per cent since 2019, the year we announced our Asia Anew initiative. The same applies to every geography where our diplomatic relations are established or strengthened.”
President Erdoğan noted that the wider Türkiye’s diplomatic representation network is, the more its exports are.
“ISTANBUL FINANCIAL CENTER HAS BECOME A GLOBAL CENTER OF ATTRACTION”
Stating that Istanbul Financial Center has become a global center of attraction in the areas of fintech and participation finance, President Erdoğan continued as follows: “Another area in which we have big goals is the export of healthcare services. We want to make our country a global center in the healthcare tourism. The number of our foreign patients is increasing exponentially every year, especially with the opening of our city hospitals one by one. These patients under treatment in our country constitute a serious added value in a number of areas, from tourism to food, transportation to nursing services. We now have a goal of $10-billion worth of healthcare tourism with our hospitals, thermal facilities and other healthcare services. We will inshallah witness together 2 million healthcare tourists and 3-billion-dollar worth of exports. In the similar vein, we aim to reach 40 billion dollars in logistics exports this year.”
