REVISESE HEADLINE, ADDS MORE REMARKS FROM TURKISH VICE PRESIDENT
By Ovunc Kutlu and Merve Berker
ISTANBUL/ Türkiye aims to increase its trade volume with Saudi Arabia to $30 billion in the medium term, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said Thursday at the Türkiye-Saudi Arabia Investment and Business Forum's gala dinner in Istanbul.
Yilmaz said the trade volume between the countries reached $6.8 billion in 2023, while Saudi firms have made an investment of $2 billion in Türkiye so far.
"We consider that it is a realistic goal to increase our trade volume in a balanced and rapid way to more than $10 billion in the short term," he said.
"We believe investments can increase easily through more frequent events that can bring together our countries' business worlds," he added.
Yilmaz said Türkiye is at the forefront as a region for supply and investment in the post-pandemic period.
"Türkiye provides opportunities for investors in technology, defense, renewable energy, petrochemicals, finance, tourism and housing as part of international investments," he said.
"Saudi Arabia's sectors that address investors include chemicals, machinery, food and drink processing, automotive, aviation, medicine and biotech, medical equipment and supplies, military industry, renewable energy, construction materials and mining sub-sectors," he added.
About his meeting with Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb, Yilmaz said: “While we expressed our satisfaction that the number of tourists coming to Türkiye from Saudi Arabia increased by 70% in 2023, reaching approximately 830,000, we evaluated the importance of the number of our citizens visiting Saudi Arabia from Türkiye increasing more than 3.5 times and reaching 670,000 in 2023.”
“We also expressed our consensus that the tourism potential between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye should be evaluated more,” he added.
“The contribution of the close and strong political dialogue between the leaders of the two countries to our economic cooperation will further strengthen our future cooperation efforts,” Yilmaz said.
“While Türkiye continues to offer important opportunities for Saudi Arabian investors, Saudi Arabia will continue to offer important investment environments for our Turkish entrepreneurs,” he added.