Exports rise in Turkey’s southeast

GAZİANTEP – Anatolia News Agency

Exports from Southeastern Anatolia reached $2.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, showing a 19 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Southeastern exports increased to $2.96 billion between January and April, up from $2.76 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to figures revealed by the Southeastern Anatolia Exporter’s Union (GAİB).

GAİB head Abdulkadir Çıkmaz, stated that they made exports to 177 countries, such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, the United States, Italy, Germany and Russia. Çıkmaz also added that Gaziantep was the locomotive province of the region with $2.06 billion total exports and a 12 percent increase in the same period.

However, Çıkmaz said in January that ongoing political tensions between Turkey and Iraq had not hampered exports to the neighboring country. Iraq made up 50.8 percent of exports from Southeastern Anatolia in the first nine months of the year, amounting to $5.9 billion. “Most exports are made to the Kurdish region of Iraq. Our exporter firms have warehouses there. Then goods are distributed to the rest of the country,” he said.