Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat attended KAGİDER's meeting titled "Türkiye's Foreign Trade Vision". In his speech here, Bolat said that the share of female employment in exporting companies is approximately 30 percent, and that female employment contributes greatly to exports, especially in the food, traditional sectors, technology and automotive sectors.
Bolat stated that the contribution of female employees to exports was 62.3 billion dollars, which constituted one quarter of the total exports of goods.
Minister Bolat stated that the contribution of women in decision-making positions to exports was calculated as 30 billion dollars in the research, and that the contribution of female employees to sectoral exports was 8.2 billion dollars in the clothing sector, 7.4 billion dollars in food products, 7.1 billion dollars in motor vehicles, and 22.2 billion dollars in high and medium-high technology products. Bolat pointed out that women's contribution to technological product exports increased by 176 percent in approximately 12-13 years.
Pointing out that there are important developments in the world economy and trade, Bolat said, "The world economy is literally boiling. World trade is literally boiling. It is a boiling cauldron. Our first duty here is not to get boiled in the boiling cauldron, that is, to stay healthy and protect our health. Our second duty is to fight for the interests of Türkiye's economy and people in this great competitive environment and trade war environment, and to get ahead in the competition and go forward." he said.
Stating that their motto in exports is "Always to the top", Bolat said that in imports it is important to maintain Türkiye's export and import balance while making the necessary imports for the country.
Stating that they aim to maintain a tolerable stability table in current transactions when considering exports of goods and services together, Bolat continued as follows:
"After all, if you have foreign currency, you can import. If you do not have foreign currency, you must first earn foreign currency. To earn foreign currency, you need to export goods and services. In this respect, these are not easy balances. Because we are not only responsible for ourselves. We also need to follow and control our competitors. The total of Türkiye's annual exports and imports of goods and services is 850 billion dollars. Considering the national income of 1.7 trillion dollars, foreign trade items correspond to approximately 50 percent of the national income."
Minister Bolat emphasized that foreign trade is extremely important for the Turkish economy and stated that exchange rates, foreign exchange balances and foreign exchange reserves are closely related to foreign trade.
Stating that effective management of customs is also of great importance, Bolat stated that a total of 850 billion dollars of trade within the scope of exports and imports passed through customs.
Stating that Türkiye maintains its stability despite the wars in its region, Bolat said: "We live in peace in Türkiye because we have a strong leadership. Under the leadership of our President, we have been going through a process for 24 years in which terrorism has been ended and the wars in the north, the wars in the south and the wars in our east are not reflected in our country, and we demonstrate this with our identity and leadership as a regional and global strong player that aims to maintain peace and especially stability."
Bolat stated that he saw the greatness and prestige of Türkiye in his meetings with international counterparts during his 3.5-year term of office, and that this provided significant advantages in negotiations and finding solutions to problems.
Stating that Türkiye rose from 21st to 16th in the world in terms of economic size and from 16th to 11th in terms of purchasing power parity, Bolat said, "In the 2010-2024 period, the world economy grew at an average annual rate of nearly 4 percent, last year the growth was 3.4 percent, and this year it is expected to be 2.9 percent." he said.
Stating that the war in the Gulf and trade wars were effective in this development, Bolat stated that the increases in commodity and energy prices also affected the global economic outlook.
Bolat said that the change in global trade in goods and services is also of critical importance, and that world trade grew by an average of 3.4 percent annually in the 2010-2024 period.
"In the last 15 years, the world economy has grown faster than world trade."
Minister of Commerce Bolat pointed out that the growth rate of the world economy in the last 15 years has been higher than the growth rate of world trade, and stated that this indicates a squeeze in world trade.
Reminding that the Donald Trump administration in the USA significantly increased customs duties and quotas within the scope of the tariff wars launched in April 2025, Bolat said, "After this, other countries started to meet their raw material and input needs in advance, which increased commodity prices." he said.
Bolat said, "Artificial intelligence has rapidly entered business life and daily life. The increase in the prices of artificial intelligence-related equipment, tools and devices also contributes to the growth in world trade." he said.
Minister Bolat said that world trade is expected to grow by 3.9 percent this year, which is one point above the global economic growth expectation of 2.9 percent.
Stating that the Turkish economy shrank in the second quarter of 2020, when the Covid-19 epidemic started, and started to recover from the third quarter, Bolat stated that positive growth has continued for the last 6 years.
Reminding that the Turkish economy grew by 3.7 percent last year, Bolat said, "Growth was 2.5 percent in the first half of this year, and one third of the 2.3 percent growth recorded in the second quarter resulted from the increase in net exports of goods and services." he said.
Bolat said, "As of the middle of the year, we reached 1 trillion 706 billion dollars of national income. We will reach 1 trillion 800 billion dollars by the end of the year." he said. Stating that net exports of goods and services have become the locomotive of economic growth, Bolat said that the unemployment rate has been in single digits for the last 41 months and is at the level of 8.4 percent.
Referring to the contribution of Turkish TV series to service exports, Bolat stated that 800 million people in the world watch Turkish TV series daily. Bolat stated that 24 Turkish TV series are watched a day in Chile and more than 30 in Spain, and that this information was conveyed to them by their interlocutors in those countries.
Stating that Turkish TV series attracted great attention in Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, Central Europe and the Balkans, Bolat stated that 600 million dollars of export revenue was obtained in this field, but the economic and cultural impact of the series was far beyond this.
Stating that international students also contribute to the Turkish economy, Bolat said, "While there were 16 thousand international students in Türkiye in 2002, today this number has reached 362 thousand." he said.
Minister Bolat stated that international students provide more than 3 billion dollars of income to Türkiye and said, "But most importantly, we gain trade ambassadors, cultural ambassadors, political ambassadors, volunteer ambassadors and tourism ambassadors." he said.
Referring to health tourism, Bolat stated that there are people coming to Türkiye for treatment from countries such as England, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.
Bolat said that within the scope of health tourism, 3 billion dollars of income was obtained from 1.4 million health tourists and that they were working to further increase these figures.
"We are carrying out lobbying work with relevant organizations"
In the interview held later, Minister Bolat stated that they carried out lobbying activities with relevant organizations including the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association, Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association, Foreign Economic Relations Board, Automotive Industry Association, Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters' Association, Vehicle Suppliers' Association and Turkish Exporters' Assembly.
Reminding that the Trump administration imposed high customs duties on the European Union (EU) within the scope of the trade wars launched on April 2, 2025, Bolat said, "Europe had a surplus of 350 billion dollars in trade with the USA, but its obstacles in the US market increased." he said.
On the other hand, Bolat said that China is gradually increasing its share in European markets and had a trade surplus of 360 billion dollars against the EU for the first time last year. "Germany had a trade deficit of 80 billion euros against China last year. These developments caused serious concern in Europe." made his assessment.
Stating that Europe is turning to new searches in the face of the rapid increase in China's exports and the trade policies of the USA, Bolat said that the "Made in Europe" approach was brought to the agenda in the EU Commission under the leadership of the French.
Bolat said, "Türkiye has a 30-year-old Customs Union relationship with the European Union. Free movement of goods in industrial products is essential." he said.
Minister Bolat noted that within the scope of the Customs Union, there should be no customs duties, quotas and measures with equivalent effect on industrial products, and that they are compatible with EU regulations in the fields of industrial competition policy, state aids, product safety and trademark and patent legislation.
