Türkiye Set a New Record in Exports with $255.8 Billion in 2023
In 2023, when global trade contracted by 2 trillion dollars, Türkiye's exports continued to increase.
2023 export data was announced in Ankara at a meeting attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In 2023, when the 100th anniversary of the Republic is celebrated, the automotive sector made the biggest contribution to exports reaching 255.8 billion dollars. While the automotive sector became the export champion with 35 billion dollars, chemicals and chemical products ranked second with 30.5 billion dollars and apparel ranked third with 19.2 billion dollars.
Mustafa Gültepe, Chairman of TİM: We started the second century of our country with the goal of making Türkiye one of the top 10 countries in exports. The target of exporting 375 billion dollars of goods and 200 billion dollars of services for 2028 will be our first serious test. We created our road map by scrutinising the targets at our Delegates Workshop.
Despite the $2 trillion contraction in global trade, the upward trend in Türkiye's exports continued in 2023. In 2023, when the 100th anniversary of the Republic was celebrated, Türkiye renewed its record in exports with 255.8 billion dollars.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the export data for 2023 in Ankara at a meeting attended by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Labour and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu.
Mustafa Gültepe, Chairman of Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TİM), underlined in his speech at the meeting that 2023 was a difficult year for exporters. Reminding that global trade contracted by 2 trillion dollars last year, Gültepe continued as follows:
“In a period of declining demand, our labour-intensive sectors had difficulty in keeping prices due to high costs. Earthquakes, regional wars and conflicts also had a negative impact on our trade. In order to compensate for our losses, we turned to alternative markets. We organised the highest number of trade delegations in our history. We organised 72 buying missions. We organised 150 trade delegations. We travelled 1.5 million kilometres in total. In other words, we circumnavigated the world 40 times. With all these efforts, we closed 2023 at a profit. We increased our share in global exports from 1.02 per cent to 1.06 per cent. In 2023, we added 18 thousand more companies to our export family. We reached 120 thousand in the total number of exporter companies. We reached the highest export value in 10 sectors. We exceeded the export limit of 1 billion dollars in 23 sectors. The three countries we exported the most were Germany, the USA and Iraq respectively. While increasing our exports to 113 countries, we broke export records in 66 countries. We increased the number of countries we exported over $ 1 billion to 50. Our unit export value was 1.57 dollars.”
TÜRKİYE'S EXPORTS GREW 7 TIMES IN THE LAST 20 YEARS
Mustafa Gültepe underlined that Türkiye has made significant progress in exports as in every field in the 100-year history of the Republic. Emphasising that exports have grown 7 times in the last 20 years, Gültepe continued as follows:
“This is a great achievement, but Türkiye's potential is much higher. Therefore, our country deserves more. As exporters, we owe it to ourselves to give our country the best it deserves. With this awareness, we started the second century with the goal of taking Türkiye among the top 10 countries in exports.
The 375 billion dollars of goods exports and 200 billion dollars of services exports targets foreseen for 2028 in the 12th Development Plan will be our first serious test. We have scrutinised these targets at our Delegates Workshop. We have created our road map in line with the opinions and suggestions of all 27 sectors.”
WE DEMAND THAT THE MINIMUM WAGE SUPPORT BE INCREASED TO 1,400 LIRAS
Mustafa Gültepe emphasised that they have to invest more and increase value-added production in order to reach big targets in exports. Reminding that the way to added value is through technology, R&D, innovation, design, sustainable production and branding, Gültepe continued as follows:
“In order to prepare such an infrastructure, access to financing on favourable terms is of great importance. We took an important step in 2023 for the solution of financing needs. We brought Türk Ticaret Bankası, Türkiye's first private bank with national capital, to our exporters. Hopefully, Türk Ticaret Bankası will be the second address of our exporters from now on. We had difficulties in access to finance in the first half of last year. The problem was largely solved in the second half. We signed a protocol with 11 public and private banks for financing with favourable conditions. In accordance with the protocol, around 5 thousand companies used 1.7 billion dollars of credit. I would like to thank The Banks Association of Türkiye in your presence. We are working together on a similar cooperation on the financing of green transformation. Changing conditions in global trade create new needs. For example, 2023 was a year in which the competitiveness of our labour-intensive sectors weakened. We believe that our President will support these sectors, which also make a great contribution to employment, to become competitive again. In this context, we demand that the minimum wage support of 700 liras be increased to 1,400 liras. We clearly see the positive contribution of state supports to our exports. Each 1 per cent increase in loans means that more than 300 new companies start exporting. Therefore, increasing the support and expanding Eximbank resources are of great importance.”
Stating that there is no goal that exporters cannot achieve as long as the state's support continues, Gültepe added that he believes that they will complete 2024 with a new record.