President Erdoğan: With its location and power in the region, Senegal is an export gateway to the West African countries
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech at the Senegal-Türkiye Business Forum in Dakar.
“OUR TRADE VOLUME HAS REACHED $540 MILLION DESPITE THE PANDEMIC”
Noting that Türkiye and Senegal have always been very close to one another despite the physical distance, President Erdoğan expressed pleasure over the excellent bilateral relations between Türkiye and Senegal.
The deals inked thus far have reinforced the contractual basis of the relations and laid a favorable groundwork for investments, the President stressed. “We have already reached the $400 million trade volume target which I and Mr. President set jointly during my visit in 2018. Our current target is $1 billion. I believe we will rapidly attain this goal as well through our joint efforts. Our trade volume has reached $540 million, up 42% year on year notwithstanding the pandemic. I wholeheartedly congratulate you, our entrepreneurs, who have contributed to this historic achievement. We will consolidate our current contractual frame through the agreements we will sign on the occasion of my visit. In the period ahead, we will hopefully walk towards our goals much faster without losing momentum.”
Drawing attention to the projects Turkish contractors successfully implement across Africa despite hardships, President Erdoğan said these projects support local employment and significantly contribute to the improvement of infrastructural capacity.
“WE HAVE ACHIEVED AN AVERAGE OF 5% GROWTH IN ECONOMY EVERY YEAR DESPITE THE INSTABILITIES IN OUR REGION”
Türkiye is an important member of the G20, which is comprised of the biggest economies of the world, and ranks 13th globally in terms of purchasing power parity, President Erdoğan underscored. “Turkish economic infrastructure is resilient to global shocks. We have smoothly overcome many troubles in recent years, the 2008 global financial crisis in particular. We have achieved an average of 5% growth in economy every year despite the instabilities in our region. The pandemic period has laid bare the power and capacity of the Turkish economy as well as the distance it has covered over the past 20 years. We have managed this turbulent period, which is branded as the gravest health crisis of the last century, without any significant shortcoming. While the global economy contracted by 3.4% in 2020, we had a record-breaking growth rate of 1.8%. We were also one of the G20 countries that had the biggest increase in industrial production in the same period. We ended last year with a record-breaking export figure of over $225 billion and foreign trade volume of nearly $500 billion. We hope to have taken this success much further with our growth rate which we believe will turn out to be double digits in 2021. Türkiye closed last year with 30 million tourists and $24.5 billion in tourism revenues amid the pandemic restrictions. We expect a much more fertile season in tourism this year.”
Noting that the data pertaining to the Turkish economy demonstrate that Türkiye can offer significant contributions to the development and the economy of Senegal, President Erdoğan stated: “We should make use of the existing means and implement new mechanisms in order to enhance our economic relations. We know that Senegal harbors the potential to become an economic hub in its region. With its location and power in the region, Senegal is an export gateway to the West African countries. The avenues of cooperation to be developed on the win-win basis particularly in the fields of manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, textile, industry, energy, foodstuff and health will benefit the entire region. Turkish products will facilitate the African peoples’ access to high-quality products and services. Türkiye has a distinctive economic and development model which it implements successfully. We are ready to share these experiences of ours with our African brothers and sisters.”
“WE IMPLEMENT MANY PROJECTS WITH OUR AFRICAN FRIENDS”
Pointing out to the distance Türkiye had covered in many aspects of the relations with Africa as a result of the efforts it had exerted as part of its African Initiative Policy, President Erdoğan highlighted that the African Initiative Policy was replaced by the Africa Partnership Policy as of 2013 after it had been completed successfully.
Türkiye’s Africa Partnership Policy is aimed at contributing to the peace and stability as well as the economic and social development in the continent, the President underlined. “To this end, we carry out a lot of works and implement many projects with our African friends. We develop all of these relations on the basis of equal partnership and mutual benefit.”
Describing the exponentially increasing trade volume as one of the most visible indicators of the fact that the mutual efforts do not go to waste, President Erdoğan stated that the total trade with the African continent has increased from $5.4 billion in 2003 to $34.5 billion at the end of 2021 and that the trade volume with Sub-Saharan African countries increased from $1.3 billion in 2003 to $11.7 billion in 2021.
Reiterating its call for Turkish entrepreneurs to invest in Senegal, President Erdoğan stressed that Türkiye’s doors are also wide open to Senegalese investors.
