Minister of Commerce Ömer Bolat attended the 6th Clustering Conference held under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce in Ankara.
Emphasizing that the development of rural areas is of great importance, Bolat said, “For this purpose, the idea of thinking globally and aiming to export to the world on the one hand, and acting locally on the other hand, is of great importance in rural areas. "UR-GE and clustering are a very important road map in this sense." he said.
Bolat stated that many cluster examples in Turkey continue successfully and made the following evaluation:
“We left the 100th anniversary of our Republic behind last year and started the second century, the Turkey Century. Within the framework of the vision put forward by our President, we are determined to increase our total goods exports to 2028 billion dollars and our services exports to 375 billion dollars by 200, in line with the development plans targets in the Turkey Century. These are studied goals. We closed the 100th anniversary of our Republic with 255,8 billion dollars. At the end of 2024 days of 45, our annualized exports exceeded 257,3 billion dollars. We had an additional export of 1,5 billion dollars on top of last year's record. With this trend, we will exceed our target in the Medium Term Program, which is 267 billion dollars in goods exports and 110 billion dollars in service exports.”
FOREIGN TRADE DEFICIT IS DECREASING
Pointing out that progress has been made in medium-high and high technology products, Bolat stated that the goal is to increase the export share of these products to 2028 percent in 50.
Bolat stated that Turkey's share in global goods exports has also increased and this share will increase further.
Pointing out that 94 percent of the exports in question are in the field of industrial products, Bolat said that Turkey exports 241 billion dollars of industrial products and that they are trying to increase this figure even further.
Bolat stated that they are making significant efforts to reduce Turkey's imports and added:
“We have had a decreasing trend in our imports and foreign trade deficit since August. Our foreign trade deficit was 2022 billion dollars on an annual basis in 110, and we reduced it to 2023 billion dollars in 106. We have now reduced it below 45 billion dollars in 2024 within 100 days. We have a foreign trade deficit of around 97 billion dollars annually. Our goal is to reduce this even further by the end of the year. We have taken important measures here. "We have been following an active import policy in many sectors since July and August."
Bolat said that they are taking preventive measures against imports that want to see Turkey as a "passenger inn" and make diversions through other countries.
Emphasizing that their biggest goal is to bring Turkey's foreign trade and current account deficit to reasonable levels, Bolat stated that there will be a decline in current transactions in February and March.
Bolat stated that this stability environment will bring about an improvement in Turkey's credit rating and accelerate the capital flow to the country.
PREPARATION FOR NEW LOAN
Bolat explained that, as the Ministry, this year they allocated a budget of 5,5 billion lira for services exports and 16 billion lira for goods exports.
Informing that there have been huge increases in Eximbank HDI and Central Bank export and rediscount credits in terms of financing facilities, Bolat said, "Eximbank has recently made preparations on environmental issues, green economy, digital transformation and value-added exports." said.
Bolat explained that the clustering approach aims to create employment, sectoral and regional development, target market-oriented export increase, strengthen connections between the developed and underdeveloped regions of the country, and direct the human resources needed by the private sector to education.
Stating that the cluster is a tool for the understanding of global thinking and local action, Bolat made the following evaluation:
“Our Ministry of Commerce started this program in 2010. It is one of our most important and useful support tools in supporting our exporters. Thus, it contributes to regional development, competition and innovation policies. The UR-GE project serves as a school for our companies in the cluster to prepare for globalization in international markets. All business organizations in our country prepared UR-GE projects, received support from our Ministry, and many of them successfully implemented them. 216 organizations prepared UR-GE Projects and presented 619 UR-GE Projects, many of them were completed. Currently, 187 UR-GE projects are actively continuing. "Our Ministry has provided more than 13 billion liras of support to UR-GE and cluster projects for 2 years."
Bolat pointed out that UR-GE and clustering projects are projects of opening up to the world, and stated that their aim is to make the Turkish Century the century of commerce.
UR-GE SUPPORT ON COMPLIANCE WITH THE GREEN AGREEMENT
Emphasizing that the harmonization efforts with the European Union to the green transformation and the Green Agreement are continuing, Bolat said, "Under the coordination of the Ministry of Commerce, we are preparing our companies, including the iron, steel, textile, cement, fertilizer and energy sectors, which will be most affected by this, to comply with the carbon certificate to prevent them from being harmed." “Their work continues.” he said.
Bolat pointed out that they want to increase the kilogram value of Turkey's exports and explained that for this, it is necessary to switch to technology, innovation and brand-intensive exports with high added value.
Stating that the Ministry will cover part of the interest of the export credit granted for exports to distant countries as a new contribution, Bolat said, “Last year, our General Directorate of Exports prepared the '2028 Export Promotion and Marketing Vision' by meeting with our exporter associations one by one. In 2024, we will carry out 27 projects for 41 different sectors. We will develop Turquality. "There will be some changes in Turquality promotional support." said.
Bolat said that the e-export platform was prepared with a model and that the easiest platform will be implemented for companies to learn about export.
Stating that they will continue to run to leave a geography where Turkish products are unknown and unknown and where exporters have not set foot, Bolat said, “The number of our exporters has reached 140 thousand. We expect this to exceed 150 thousand by the end of this year. "The number of countries we export to and customs areas has reached 240, and the number of products we export has reached 12 thousand 800." he said.
After his speech, Bolat presented a successful good practice example plaque to the exporters' associations in Turkey.
