Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat said, “The winds of protectionism are increasing in trade. Customs duties are being increased rapidly and become important instruments of trade wars. In this regard, we always strive to establish stronger alliances with our trade partners.” he said.
Speaking at the “Export Leaders Award Ceremony” organized by the Gebze Chamber of Commerce at the Gebze Technical University Congress Center, Bolat said that Kocaeli realized almost 12.5 percent of Türkiye’s exports with a total export of 35 billion dollars.
Bolat stated that Türkiye’s exports increased by 4.4 percent last year, reaching 273.5 billion dollars, and noted that 33 provinces exceeded the 1 billion dollar threshold in goods exports, and 44 provinces increased their exports.
Stating that exports mean investment, production, employment, taxes and earning foreign currency, Bolat said, “Introducing the country means introducing its technology and quality to the world. It means contributing to the country’s foreign payments balance being at stable and stable levels with the foreign currency it earns. It means the stability of the money and foreign exchange markets. Our indispensable red line for this is that we are working with all our strength to increase our exports of goods and services.” he said.
Pointing out that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan always says “Investment, production, employment and exports”, Bolat said, “Turkish Statistical Institute will announce the gross national product figures for 2025 in 15 days and we will rise to an economy of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars. This means; we will rise from the 17th place to the 16th place in the ‘World Economy League’ and become the 4th largest economy in Europe. In this sense, many “We are among the top 10 countries in the world in the sector, and in some of the top 5 countries.” he said.
“WE CONTINUE TO PRODUCE AND GROW”
Stating that the share of exports of goods and services in national income is 25 percent, Bolat continued as follows:
“Our service exports were announced yesterday as 122 billion dollars. We had a deficit of 25 billion dollars in our current transactions. This is exactly the figure of our gold imports. Gold is not a product of trade, it is a financial and investment tool. Excluding gold imports, we do not actually have a current account deficit. While the current account deficit to national income ratio has been around 3.5 percent on the historical average, hopefully this year, when our national income is announced, we will see that 1.3 percent, 1.4 percent are compatible with the medium-term program.” a digit.
Employment figures were announced in December and we saw the lowest unemployment rate in the last 25 years with 7.7 percent. Thank God, we continue to produce and grow. 3.7 percent was the growth rate of the first 9 months. The growth rate of the last 23 years has been 5.4 percent on an annual basis. We continue to increase employment. We reached the number of employment from 20 million to nearly 33 million. Our industry is truly our face current. Türkiye is now advancing in the industry of medium-high and high-tech products, and the share of these products in exports has increased to 43.5 percent of our total exports of 273.5 billion dollars. This rate was 30 percent in 2002. “Together, we will continue to achieve the goal of the Turkey Century that our President set for us, by preserving political stability, purifying our country from terrorism, and growing our production in industry, agriculture and services despite many negative conditions in the world.”
“THERE IS A RURAL COMPETITION, A RURAL RACE IN THE WORLD”
Referring to the developments in the world, Minister Bolat continued his words as follows:
“If we stop, then they will surpass us. If we start to decline, then they will surpass us. Therefore, we will break our fast with our current successes, but we have to continue to carry our glorious flag and the Turkish economy higher and further. There is a ruthless competition, a ruthless race in the world. Look, the economic rankings in exports are changing among countries in the world. East Asia is rapidly rising, and in this sense, we see that trade wars are getting more intense in this competition. Winds of protectionism in trade are increasing. Customs duties are rapidly increasing. “They are becoming important instruments of trade wars. In this regard, we always strive to establish stronger alliances with our trade partners. We work with the aim of exporting to the whole world.”
Stating that, as the Ministry, they provided significant support to increase exports, Bolat said, “Last year, we gave 33 billion liras of support to our exporters. The number of our exporters reached 168 thousand. This year, we will hopefully support our exporters from the support and price stabilization fund of 45 billion liras. In addition, the export rediscount loans of our Central Bank were close to 1 trillion liras last year. Here, with very serious subsidies, we provided rediscount loans to our exporters, especially Eximbank and Ziraat Bank. We provide.” he said.
Bolat emphasized that they spent a lot of time on trade diplomacy and international agreements and said:
“Mr. President, we are scanning the world, it was 23 countries, now it has become 24, we have free trade agreements. Our Customs Union with the European Union turns 30 this year. The European Union is our largest export partner with 43 percent. We exported 117 billion dollars. When the Customs Union started in 1996, the ratio of exports to the European Union covering our imports was 50 percent. It reached 101 percent in 2025. Islamic countries, distant countries, the African market… Africa is a region we attach great importance to, and now we have exports of 37 billion dollars to Africa. We have 16.2 billion dollars of exports to the USA. Last year, the services sector broke a record with 122 billion dollars. Together, we reached approximately 396 billion dollars in exports. “We have reached the league. We have exceeded the 390 billion dollar export target set by our President last year by 6 billion dollars. This year, we will make great efforts to reach 410 billion dollars with a target of 282 billion dollars in goods and 128 billion dollars in exports.”
Minister Bolat stated that the conditions are not easy and said, “Thanks to our efforts to combat high inflation, we will reduce the inflation rate from 76 percent to 30 percent and this year to 20 percent. We will both expand employment and increase our economic growth rate, increase our exports, and continue to support our tradesmen, farmers, retirees, civil servants and workers. After this year, hopefully the earthquake load will be reduced to the minimum and I hope we will spend our budget primarily on our retirees, “Our support to our tradesmen, farmers, workers, SMEs and industrialists will increase even more.” he said.
Adil Pelister, Deputy Chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), said that the “Top 1000 Exporters Research”, which has been held since 2004, has become Türkiye’s prestige list, and that companies that realize 60 percent of exports, invest in technology and become brands are included in this list.
Pointing out that being permanent on the list despite the changing conditions in global trade is an important achievement, Pelister stated that the production and export capacity Gebze has achieved is not a coincidence, and that industrial investments in the region are the product of a long-standing strategic vision.
Gebze Chamber of Commerce President Abdurrahman Aslantaş also emphasized that 63 chamber member companies, whose production succeeded in being included in TİM’s top 1000 exporter list, made a significant contribution to the economy of the region and the country with a total export of 10 billion 497 million dollars.
