Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Lokmanoğlu underlined that the Turkish business community wants to expand and deepen relations in all areas, noting that there are important opportunities to increase mutual investments and trade volume. Cihat Lokmanoğlu said that the support of the Canadian private sector is also important in this regard, “We believe that there are serious opportunities to expand and deepen the economic and commercial relations of the two countries, as well as the potential for serious cooperation in third countries. In this respect, we think that the signing of a free trade agreement to be very important.”

Lokmanoğlu said, “Canada is among Turkey’s ‘Priority Countries,’ while Canada's Global Market's Plan defines Turkey as a ‘top emerging market’.  Export Development Canada has defined Turkey as a strategic market for Canada. Its regional center is İstanbul. With JETCO signed between our countries this year, our economic relations have gained a new impetus. Our trade volume is $3.5 billion in 2018. In the first nine months of 2019, it reached $2.6 billion. This year, 799 different companies exported to Canada, while 562 companies imported from Canada. In addition to increasing the volume of bilateral trade, the products that are subject to trade are also diversifying.

- “We also export cars and ships”

Besides steel, textiles and hazelnuts traditionally exported to Canada, Turkey has now started to export more technological products such as cars, ships and refrigerators. These figures are promising. It shows that mutual efforts have been successful. We have the potential to carry these numbers even higher, as Canada is the 10^th largest economy in the world with a national income of $1.7 trillion.

It is one of the world's leading, most dynamic economies with a safe business and investment environment.

It is also a bridge that brings together the North American market and the rapidly developing Asian economies.

Likewise, Turkey is the industrial and production center of this geography. More than 90% of our exports are industrial products. About 65% of this is done to developed countries such as Europe and America.”

Pointing out that they are among the first in the world in areas such as tourism, contracting, logistics, agricultural production and white goods production, Lokmanoğlu said, “We are among the top ten destinations in the world in tourism. In logistics, we have the largest road transport fleet after the United States, 7^th in the world in agricultural production and 1^st in Europe.

In the contracting sector, we have 46 companies among the world's 250 largest companies and we are ranked 2^nd in the world in this respect. We are Europe's leading supplier of automotive, consumer goods and textiles.”