It was called a record in the history of the Republic... The reality turned out to be very different: Turkey has fallen even behind Vietnam

Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat announced the October foreign trade figures at a press conference held in Antalya with the President of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), Mustafa Gültepe.

Reminding that the Republic Day in October fell on a weekday this year, whereas it fell on a weekend last year, Bolat pointed out that there was an increase in exports despite this negative calendar effect.

A REPUBLIC RECORD?

"In October, we broke the record for the highest October exports in the history of our Republic. Our exports have exceeded 23 billion 600 million dollars, an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the same month last year," said Bolat, adding the following:

"Last year, October exports amounted to 22.8 billion dollars. Our exporters achieved an increase of over approximately 800 million dollars. In October, our exports excluding gold and energy increased by 8.6 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 22.2 billion dollars. Thus, the record for the highest monthly exports excluding gold and energy in the history of our Republic was broken in October. Consequently, we have broken monthly Republic history records in 10 of the last 15 months. In the first 10 months of 2024, our goods exports rose from 209.7 billion dollars to 216.4 billion dollars. Thus, we increased our goods exports by 6.7 billion dollars in the first 10 months of this year."

FROM WHERE TO WHERE IN 22 YEARS

Although Minister Bolat paints a rosy picture of export rates, the reality is quite different. While Turkey's total high-tech exports with high added value were 1.6 billion dollars in 2000, this figure only increased by 400 million dollars in 2022 to reach 2 billion dollars.

While Turkey's pace of progress stalled over the course of more than 20 years, many countries around the world surpassed Turkey in high-tech export figures with high added value. One of the countries that left Turkey behind was Vietnam.

Vietnam's high-tech exports, which were 500 million dollars in 2000, showed a remarkable increase, reaching 137 billion dollars in 2022.

While Turkey experienced limited growth in high-tech exports over the last 22 years, Vietnam made a major leap in this field.

TRAGIC PICTURE

According to current figures, Turkey was 3.2 times ahead of Vietnam in total in 2000. In 2022, however, Vietnam was 68.5 times ahead of Turkey in high-tech exports with high added value.

News Source: 12punto