Turkish Minister of Economy: “First quarter growth will exceed 4 percent”

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci made a speech at the Brand Turkey Conference organized by the organization of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) for the first time and said that Turkey had opened to the world with the growth based on exports.

Recalling that the foreign trade volume, which was 4.5 billion dollars in 1980 had increased to 450 billion dollars in 2014, Minister Zeybekci pointed out that Turkey aimed to export 500 billion dollars in 2023 and added “We cannot reach this goal by doing what we have done so far. Neither can we have a place among the first 10 largest economies in the world, just like we cannot rank among the first 3 top economies in EU, if we continue to do what we have done so far. “

Turkey must increase brand and high technology exports

Underlining that Turkey needs to pull its high technology and brand exports figures above 20 percent, Minister Zeybekci said that the country would reach the target more easily if this figure standing at 4 percent currently, could be increased to said level.

Minister Zeybekci also talked about the incentives and support provided for export and investment, and stated that the government had adopted one of the most ambitious incentive programs in the world, so far.

Suitable environment for domestic car production

In reply to a question about prospects of domestic automobile production Mr. Zeybekçi said “There seems to be a suitable environment for it. We have provided satisfactory incentive tools within our project-based investment incentive system for this. Still we can bargain further and I attach importance to guarantee of purchase to be provided by the state”.

2017 export figure forecasted at US$ 155 billion

Minister Zeybekci expressed that they would enlarge Turkey in the coming period hand in hand with the private sector and based on production and continued as follows:

“We see 2017 as the “starting year” again and we will raise the 153 billion dollar export figure of the medium term program to over 155 billion dollars by the end of the year. We will see the net support of our program for the growth of exports when we have figures for the first quarter. I hope we will not be disappointed. We will see that exports have contributed more than 1.5 percent to growth, and that our growth rate in the first quarter is more than 4 percent. By the end of the year, we will have a growth rate of over 4.4 percent mentioned in our medium term program.”

MEDIA