President Erdoğan: We are determined to elevate Türkiye to its rightful place in economy
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered remarks following the Presidential Cabinet Meeting at the Presidential Complex.
TÜRKİYE-AFRICA PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT
Drawing attention to the 3rd Türkiye-Africa Partnership Summit held in Istanbul with the theme of Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity, President Erdoğan said he had held bilateral meetings with 15 heads of state and government on the sidelines of the Summit, and that during the two-day sessions steps aimed at boosting Africa’s capacity for education, healthcare, security, agriculture and human resources had been discussed.
President Erdoğan noted: “I believe with this summit, which we held successfully despite the pandemic conditions, we have now entered a new period in the Türkiye-Africa partnership. We have increased our bilateral trade volume with Africa from $5.4 billion to $30 billion in the past 11 months of this year. Our goal is now to increase it to $50 billion at the first stage, and then hopefully to $75 billion.”
“WE WILL CLOSE 2021 WITH A NEARLY DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH RATE”
Underscoring that Türkiye had an economy that had achieved an average annual growth rate of 5.1 per cent in the past 19 years, President Erdoğan said: “While all the countries shrank in 2020, when the pandemic shook the whole world, we grew by 1.8 per cent. We will inshallah close 2021 with a nearly double-digit growth rate.
“We endeavor to place Türkiye among the world’s top 10 economies and move it up to the top of the league of global development. We are determined to elevate Türkiye to its rightful place in economy just as we have done in democracy, development, security and diplomacy.”
“THE WORLD IS BIGGER THAN 5 IN ECONOMY AS WELL”
Also touching upon the recent developments in the global economy, President Erdoğan said: “The abundance of money in the world has started to increase costs at first, and then prices. As a matter of fact, both the U.S. and Europe are facing inflation rates that they have never experienced in their recent history. Nevertheless, no country sets its interest rate over its inflation, as it is offered to, if not imposed on Türkiye. The excessive increases in the prices of global metal, energy and food raw materials, which have recently been concealed, are the result of the reflex of avoiding the threats posed by the abundance of money. The reason why we say that the world is bigger than 5 in economy as well is that at the heart of all these problems are the countries that introduce themselves as great countries.
“The so-called big economies seek to stick other countries with the adverse outcomes of the fight among themselves. What we say is that we will not be deceived by this game. That is why we say investment. That is why we say employment. That is why we say production. That is why we say exportation. That is why we say current account surplus. That is why we say growth with current account surplus. As the President of Türkiye, I am once again declaring it from here that I will not allow any steps that would cut investments, decrease employment, cause to drop production, or block exportation in our country.”
