Turkey in search of new markets in Africa
The country of Turkey in parallel to its great economic achievement in the past decade is now determined to expand its export markets to avoid a likely adverse effect of a continuing global crisis in the world.
The government headed by PM Erdoğan together with endless efforts of Mr. Çağlayan, the Minister for Economy has been doing everything to make sure Turkey can show the required export performance to make up for the reduced exports figures last year, by opening new doors in countries such as Gabon, Senegal, Algeria and many other countries South Africa to be in the first row surely.
Within this framework a business delegation headed by PM Erdoğan has been visiting some African countries recently.
Erdoğan in the meantime said during his visit to Gabon that together with Turkish investors, Turkey wanted to launch a new process of change and transformation in Gabon and Turkey and Gabon could cooperate in construction of dams, natural gas production and establishing natural gas grids.
He also added that Turkey’s state-run air carrier, the Turkish Airlines, would soon launch direct flights to Gabon.
Currently, bilateral trade volume between Turkey and Gabon stands below 50 million USD and the two countries aim at increasing the figure to as high as 100 million USD by 2015.
The PM’s African tour also includes Niger and Senegal where there are certainly great business opportunities for Turkish entrepreneurs.
Now when we look at the initiative the government has been taking all along, it would not be fair to say Turkey has not done well in terms of exports. This is despite all the negative criticism regarding political (and other) performance of the government since they took office a decade ago.
It certainly feels good to know we as Turkish citizens are not in a nightmare similar to that the Greeks have been experiencing for quite a while. This is certainly due to the good performance of the current Turkish government.
10.01.2013
Editor, BTT
