Istanbul: Prime business destination

Turkey is going great, serving as a bridge between Europe and Asia. 
Located well in the Middle East and at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, there is no wonder Turkey occupies a unique position, and so does the Turkish economy remaining resilient and going great.
Stretching from Europe to Asia, the country serves well as the major path between the two major continents and has done so through one form or another for centuries.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) defined the economy of Turkey as an emerging market and it is well placed among the world’s developed countries, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Due to its globally integrated and solid economy, large and young population of around 75 million, nearly three quarters of whom live in towns and cities, Turkey is a source of
new business and development in the Middle East region.
As a result of these features Turkey has shown a remarkable performance with its strong growth over the last decade, says Kemal Gunay, commercial counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Riyadh.
With the growth rate of 4 percent in 2015, Turkey showed better performance compared to most of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. 
According to the OECD’s forecasts, Turkey is expected to continue its comparatively good economic performance for the next couple of years.
Going so great Turkey became the 6th largest economy in Europe and the 17th largest economy in the world, according to GDP per capita (PPP) figures in 2015.
It is a founding member of the OECD (1961) and the G-20 major economies (1999).
Since Dec. 31, 1995, Turkey is also part of the EU Customs Union.
According to the Turkish Embassy in Riyadh, Turkey’s foreign trade in 2002-2015 has shown an outstanding performance and the share of trade volume in GDP rose to around 50 percent in this period.
Moreover, Turkey has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with 18 countries and country group.
“Also, we expect to finalize FTAs with 19 more countries in the coming period,” said Gunay.
Moreover, both sector-specific and regional composition of exports and imports have changed in a way transforming Turkey from a peripheral, labor-intensive production center to a more technology and capital intensive goods exporting country, the official remarked.
Turkey is among the world’s major producers of agricultural products, textiles, motor vehicles, ships and other transportation equipment, construction materials, consumer electronics and home appliances.
Commenting on Saudi-Turkish economic relations, he observed that the trade between Saudi Arabia and Turkey has shown a stable trend with a much better performance in 2010-2012 period compared to that of Turkey’s overall trade volume, and reached to $8.1 billion in 2012.
Turkey’s export to the Kingdom, which was almost $555 million in 2002, exceeded $3.5 billion in 2015.
Around 80 percent of Turkey’s exports to the Kingdom are industrial products whereas agricultural products account for 10 percent in the exports, he said.
He noted that the technological breakdown of Turkey’s exports to the Kingdom has shown a similar path with total exports.
There has been an important increase in the share of mid-high technological goods while the share of low technological goods diminished drastically, he added.
About Turkey’s imports from the Kingdom, he stated: “Though the main bulk of Turkey’s imports from the Kingdom have been coming from crude oil and petrochemical products, the share of crude oil in total imports declined from 79 percent to below 34 percent between 2000 and 2015, while the share of petrochemicals increased drastically during the same period.”
Currently the biggest portion of the imports of Turkey from the Kingdom is composed by mid-high technological products.
Thanks to its extensive technological knowledge, skilled man power, adaptation skills and cost-effective service at international standards, high client satisfaction and coordination between the public and private sectors, Turkish constructors have become important players internationally related to their domestic experience.
Turkish constructors are mainly active at airport, metro, industrial production sites, refinery, energy infrastructure and highway projects, which require more skills and necessitate more technology.
Significantly, Turkish contracting services in the Kingdom have undertaken over 100 
projects. 
By the end of 2015, the amount of total value of the completed or ongoing projects by Turkish contractors is about $17 billion.
There is a huge potential between the Kingdom and Turkey in the economic field and through further improvement of bilateral trade and the identification of new cooperation prospects within the framework of Saudi Vision 2030, both countries will deepen their special economic relationship.

Source: Arab News