By Gokhan Ergocun
ISTANBUL (AA) – Türkiye ranks second in the world in the number of contractors after China, and eighth country in the world in terms of income generated by foreign contracts, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a contracting award ceremony organized by the Turkish Contractors Association in Ankara, Erdogan said the contracting sector is one of the country's strongest.
He said, “Our country is represented by 43 companies in the world's top 250 international contracting list. We have eight companies on the list of the world's 225 largest technical consultants."
Erdogan said there was a partial decrease in Turkish companies' share of project revenues this year, however, he believes this decrease will be offset in the coming years.
“The jobs our companies take abroad not only bring foreign currency to our country but also increase Türkiye's brand value," he stressed.
The Turkish construction sector began its overseas activities in 1972, and in the last 52 years, they have completed 12,277 projects worth $515 billion in 137 countries, he said, adding: "In 2005, we exceeded the $10 billion level for the first time in the total value of the projects undertaken, and in 2012, 2013 and 2021, we broke a record in this field with project amounts of $32 billion."
In 2023, despite the problems affecting the whole world such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the annual project size was $28 billion, he noted.
While the average project cost for Turkish contractors was $21 million in the early 2000s, this figure reached $65 million in 2023, he highlighted.
"In other words, we have made very serious progress in every field, in every title," he said.
In 2002, the total international revenues of the world's 250 largest contracting companies were $106.5 billion and by 2023, this figure had risen to $430 billion, he said adding that by the 2030s, it is expected to reach $750 billion.
"There is still a huge potential waiting to be discovered," he added.