Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that Turkey is one of the 24 countries and the 9th of these who reached the level of pre-crises production level in 2008-2010 period and the 2nd country in Europe and Middle East after Poland and Israel who realised the most rapid recovery from crises. He added that Turkey reached an unprecedented peak in national income level, private sector machinery and equipment investment and private sector employment.

Hisarcıklıoğlu told that besides these positive news, Turkey’s import increases faster than its export because of the late recovery of EU countries who consist the largest market and the increasing petroleum prices. He emphasized that the importance of exports in 2011 and after will increase  in order to continue with the economic growth since the growth in 2010 was completely dependent to private sector investments and consumption while the part of foreign trade in growth was -4.4%. He reported that Turkey’s share in world export decreased from 0.82% to 0.76% while its imports increased from 1.11% to 1.21 % and the ministry’s input supply strategy is crucial in order to decrease the foreign trade deficit and the dependency of our industry to imports.

Hisarcıklıoğlu mentioned that the 70% of the iron and steel producing establishments in Turkey obtain inputs from junk but it is imported instead of obtaining it from our own resources although there is 5 million tone junk in Turkey which is not collected. He also told that there is a cooperative work with automotive, machinery, iron-steel industries in order to define a new roadmap within the context of export oriented production strategies.


Minister of State Zafer Çağlayan also made a speech in the meeting and he noted that exports increased 16.2% in 1-10 April 2011 when compared the same period of last year and he emphasized that Turkey will reach the pre-crises period in export and the Medium Term Program target which is 127 Billion USD will be exceeded. He told that the high level of import is known and it is important to look for solutions for the foreign trade deficit.

Çağlayan reminded the 2023 export target which is 500 billion USD and he noted that it is important to fulfil this target with at least 80% coverage of exports to imports. He said that energy is one of the most crucial import items and Turkey spends 38.5 billion USD for energy import while its total import is 185.5 billion USD.

Ankara Chamber of Industry President Nurettin Özdebir made a speech and he noted that the current deficit, employment and structural problems need to be solved in order to protect Turkish industry and industrialists. He also mentioned that it is crucial to produce high value added products but it is a major problem to find qualified work force for the industry sector.
After the speeches, Ministry of State Zafer Çağlayan and TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu signed the “Increasing Export Competitiveness of Machinery Sector with Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade and TOBB Cooperation” protocol.
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