Ghana-Turkey to foster trade relations

Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry,on Wednesday said  Ghana-Turkey relationship was well matched as partners to harness trade and infrastructure relations to boost the economies of the two countries.

Ms Tetteh said this at the second Ghana-Turkey joint Economic Commission meeting aimed at accelerating growth and development in trade and industry in Accra.

She said the meeting would also help explore opportunities for partnership since business was not just about providing raw materials but was also about investing capital to boost the business.

She said Ghana had been successful in exporting gold and cocoa to Turkey in addition to increasing growth through trade and industry from the importation of electrical equipment, chemical substances, plastics, minerals and fast moving consumables from Turkey.

Ms Tetteh indicated that during the 2008 African Union (AU) Summit, the AU declared Turkey as a potential business partner which makes the trade relationship between Ghana and Turkey very necessary to promote and ensure growth within the two countries.

Professor Recep Akdag, Turkish Minister of Health, said commercial and economic relations between the two countries would create important bilateral steps towards the development of both countries since it was obvious the agreements made would yield productive results.

“The development of economic relations between Turkey and Ghana, who are important actors within their regions, will not only increase the prosperity of the two countries, but it will also have positive effects on the stability and prosperity of the surrounding and neighboring countries in their regions.

“Another important step to improve our economic and commercial relations is to sign a Free Trade Agreement between our countries. I would like to stress that our trade volume will significantly increase with a Free Trade Agreement. As a result, the increased trade and mutual contacts will bring along new investment and economic cooperation possibilities,” he said.

The Turkish Health Minister therefore stressed the need for the two countries to strengthen their cooperation and exploit their economic and commercial potentials in order to overcome the recent global economic crisis and to reduce its negative effects to a minimum.

Prof. Akdag said Turkey’s Gross Domestic Product was more than tripled and increased from $230 billion to $736 billion from 2002 to 2010.

“Turkish economy has been the fastest growing economy among OECD and European countries with a growth rate of 8.9 in 2010. With a growth rate of 10.2, Turkey has  become the fastest growing economy in the world with a growth rate of 10.2 in the first half of 2011. Our goal is to become one of the first 10 biggest economies in the world by the year 2023.

“In the year 2010, Turkey has realized $114 billion of exports and $185 billion of imports and has reached a trade volume of almost $300 billion,” he added. .

He said the growth in the economy had also impacted on individual prosperity, as the per capita income which was only 3500 dollars in 2001 had exceeded $10,000 in 2010.

Prof. Akdag noted that one of the driving forces behind that progress was the trade promotion strategies that “we have been carrying on since the begginning of the 2000s.”

The Turkish Health Minister stated that the opening of Turkish Embassy in Accra and the start of Turkish Airlines flights between Accra and Istanbul were important steps towards the development of the relations between the two countries.

He said those steps also made Ghana one of the three countries in Sub Saharan Africa, which Turkey had the strongest commercial and economic relations with.

He therefore hoped that the results of deliberations between the two nations would be an important step towards the development of bilateral commercial and economic relations between Turkey and Ghana.

“It is obvious that this sincere and well-intentioned approach of both sides would help us reach productive results”, he said.

The trade volume between Turkey and Ghana was only $63 million in 2003. The figure has exceeded $290 million in 2010.

Source: GNA