Exporters should increase business volume with neighbors, Africa: Association

ANKARA

Turkish exporters should give a bigger boost to their business volume with the country’s neighbors, referring mainly in the east, a leading sector player has said.

Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) President İsmail Gülle also told state-run Anadolu Agency that Turkey’s exports in July seemed to rise over 20 percent and reached the highest July figure ever.

Gülle underlined that Turkey should increase its exports with neighboring countries.

He reiterated that Turkey made the largest volume of exports to the European Union.

“While our exports to the EU have been increasing, our exports to other neighbors, e.g. to Iran, Iraq or the United Arab Emirates, have been decreasing,” said Gülle.

“We should better read changes on a country basis. We must look into Iran separately, for instance. We should have a separate strategy and relation with our neighbors,” he said.

“Business comes before politics,” Gülle said, adding that exporters would deepen their works on countries such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

He said Turkish exporters should also focus on African countries as current trade volume falls short of its potential.

“Africa is a new world, new market now. We should increase our trade volume with African countries,” Gülle said.

He also said Turkey’s July exports would be an important step to catch the country’s export target of $173 billion for 2018.

Gülle predicted that Turkey’s exports would surpass its target with prospering performance in the coming months.

He also noted that TİM would introduce new projects, which contribute directly to exports and new incentives in the coming periods.