Trade Minister Ömer Bolat makes statements

Trade Minister Ömer Bolat made statements on the weekend program with Hakan Çelik broadcast on CNN Türk. Minister Bolat stated that as a Ministry, they are actively in the field against businesses engaging in exorbitant pricing, saying, 'We are issuing warnings to take back price hikes.'

Minister Ömer Bolat's statements: 

Turkey has achieved very important gains in the process of political stability for 21 years. It has largely ended the fight against terrorism in Turkey. This year, we will reach a national income of 1.1 trillion dollars. Per capita income has exceeded 12 thousand 500 dollars. The average 9-month growth has risen to 4.7 percent. Turkey has achieved very important gains in the process of political stability for 21 years. It has largely ended the fight against terrorism in Turkey. This year, we will reach a national income of 1 trillion 75 billion dollars. Per capita income has exceeded 12 thousand 500 dollars. The average 9-month growth has risen to 4.7 percent. 

Turkey possesses a much larger and more stable power than the geography of 780 thousand square kilometers it covers. The President has a very respected weight. We saw this in Germany and at the United Nations. 

We clearly see this picture in terms of Turkey's political stability, economic power, its position as a peace envoy with its soft power, and its ability to be in dialogue with everyone. There is a great desire to produce in Turkey and supply from Turkey, especially from US and European companies, due to Turkey's quality industrial production, its capabilities in the services sector, its successes in the logistics sector, and its successes in the health sector. Such demands are very strong in the Islamic world. Even if there are major disputes in the US and Europe, the business world does not look at this. 

TURKEY'S NATIONAL INCOME HAS EXCEEDED 1 TRILLION DOLLARS 

The figures also show this. In 2002, the total foreign investment coming to our country was 15 billion dollars and 5 thousand firms. After 2002, it reached 259 billion dollars. This contributed to the increase in our prosperity. Our national income has come from 250 billion dollars to 1 trillion 75 billion dollars. The number of organized industrial zones is over 350, and the number of people working in them is over 2.5 million. There is a desire to establish many more OIZs. 

I saw a great enthusiasm in the Gulf countries in terms of doing business with Turkey. We clearly saw this enthusiasm in the Turkic world, especially in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. The French business world is very integrated into Turkey. We will hold a business forum with France in Turkey. 

Africa already sees Turkey as a role model. Africa's misfortune, the Russia-Ukraine War, created a foreign currency shortage in the African geography. If they had the opportunity, they would do more business. Turkish Airlines is opening Africa to the world. 

Wherever we went, our President is welcomed everywhere just as the most developed country in the world is welcomed. 

Our Customs Union was completed in 1995. 27 years have passed since January 1, 1996. Today, the mutual trade between Turkey and the EU is 200 billion dollars. The EU is our largest partner. Turkey is also the EU's 6th largest partner. The EU also wants to do business with Turkey. Products that could not be brought from the Far East during the pandemic are brought from Turkey in 24 hours. 

THE EU DOES NOT SHOW LOYALTY TO AGREEMENTS REGARDING VISAS 

27 years have passed since the Customs Union. The EU has signed free trade agreements with exactly 75 countries. We have also signed 27 free trade agreements with different countries. There is no problem in trade, but there are other problems with the EU. The comings and goings of business people who do exports and imports are being hindered. Business people are experiencing visa problems. They are kept waiting for 2 months. One important reason for the visa problem is that after the Syrian civil war, there were some migration movements from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria. Xenophobia and Islamophobia started in Europe against these migrations. We are complying with the readmission agreement. However, the EU shows a lack of loyalty to agreements. 

Can 5 articles be used as an excuse for a country that has realized 67 out of 72 articles regarding visa liberalization? Last night we gave 6 martyrs. Due to some fault lines within us, the fight against terrorism is an indispensable, vital issue for us. The EU has signed a free trade agreement

We are in consensus with the EU on many issues. However, when it comes to business council meetings, issues are blocked with an obstruction. With Germany's positive effort, the EU commission was tasked with relations with Turkey. 

There was also a proposal for the EU investment bank to open credit taps to Turkey. However, the proposal was suddenly postponed at the last EU commission. I see Israel behind this. 

We are obliged to talk to every segment about a Palestinian State that will cover the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. 

The Customs Union is an ongoing process that will be updated. Extremely constructive meetings were held during the trips to Germany, Greece, and Hungary. What the EU countries and leading countries say is this: We want to be in constructive dialogue with you in political terms and strengthen our relations in the economic and trade fields. 

On the 26th of the month, we have the opening of Women's Cooperatives in Gaziantep. Mrs. Emine Erdoğan will perform the opening. We are working on existing investments. Direct investments in the world have decreased by 30 percent. 

The year 2023 was not a good one for world trade. The rate of world production fell below 3 percent. China and India are driving this. There is a major decline in Europe. There is a 4.8 percent decline in the global export unit index and a 4.7 percent decline in the import unit index. 

Although we started with a 6 billion dollar export loss due to the earthquake, we will close 2023 with 357 billion dollars with a 2.5 billion dollar increase in goods exports and an 11 billion dollar increase in services exports every month, breaking records by exceeding the previous year's exports every month. It is a bad year in global trade. 

On Monday, the 2nd runway will be opened at Sabiha Gökçen Airport. In 2002, 5.5 million people were flying per year in Turkey. Now, more than 130 million people are flying in Turkey. It is a very large organization. The 2nd runway is being opened for the 2nd terminal, that investment will be made. 

TURKEY WILL BE A PARTNER IN THE DEVELOPMENT ROAD PROJECT 

There are searches towards Europe regarding transportation. One of these is the Middle Corridor. China's Belt and Road project passes through the Central Asian Turkic Republics. It is a line that will pass through Turkey with the opening of the Zangezur corridor, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.

Another project is the Development Road project, which is led by Iraq and the United Arab Emirates and which we aim to be a partner in. Goods arriving at the Persian Gulf will come via 1200 kilometers of railway from the port in Iraq and reach Ovaköy in Turkey. This is one of the safest lines going to Europe. 

There was an alternative line initiative centered in the US, Israel, and India. However, after Israel's brutal massacres against Gazans since October 7, it became clear that that project would not be realized. It is a fact that Israel falling into the position of a bad country in the eyes of peoples, an Israel-centered transit project will not be welcomed. The Middle Corridor and the Development Road have come to the fore. Turkey is a country with the most 'feasible' pipelines in this regard. Anyone looking at the map sees that no project that by-passes Turkey is 'feasible'. 

WE HAVE THE MOST MODERN CUSTOMS GATES IN THE WORLD 

This year, the total of goods exports and imports will be 625 billion dollars. There has been a decline in the rate of import growth in the last 5 months. This supported our effort to pull the current account deficit below 50 billion. Our goal is to prevent unfair illegal trade. We have to protect our own national production against unfair trade. We have the most modern customs gates in the world. We are extremely good in terms of digitalization. We work 24/7. The number of employees in our Ministry is 23 thousand. The number of Customs Directorate employees is 16 thousand. It shows how much importance we attach to it. We seized 1.4 tons of drugs. The value of this is 4.7 billion TL. 17.5 billion TL worth of smuggled goods were also seized. 

In addition to seizures at customs gates, we also have an application in the form of subsequent seizure. We earned 2.6 billion liras of income for our state in the form of subsequent seizure. Our goal is to never allow drugs to pass. We work together with the gendarmerie and police forces. What we seize constitutes a 15 percent share of the total drug traffic. Turkey is one of the countries that does the greatest fight against drugs in the world.

With the Covid-19 process, the world faced inflation. We saw that inflation in our country unfortunately rose to 85 percent last October and then fell to 39 percent. It is currently at the 62 percent level. The supply-demand balance caused very serious price fluctuations. 

WE ARE WARNING SECTORS TO 'TAKE BACK PRICE HIKES' 

We cannot live with inflation, we have to reduce inflation. In terms of suppressing overheated domestic demand, credit tightening and monetary tightening are being followed. Various mechanisms such as the retail trade law, the law on markets, and the fight against exorbitant prices have been developed. 

Some ill-intentioned, malicious hoarder mentalities emerged. Some measures were taken regarding the fight against them. Penalties were increased, and as the Ministry of Trade, we are fighting by changing regulations. 

We have made very serious regulations in e-commerce, social media, and classified ad sites. We are punishing manipulative price increases. We prevented sales of more than 3 in individual sales, and authorized dealers for the 6-month 6 thousand km limit. 

In the food sector, we are doing market inspections, cash register shelf price label checks, and exorbitant price labels. We are actively in the field with Ministry personnel. We are going after the sectors where we see exorbitant pricing. We also have a tip-off line. We warn the sectors to take back these price hikes. When they don't, we go after them. 

This year, 2.3 billion TL in fines were issued. As a Ministry, we applied 538 million liras of inspections. We applied a total of 1.2 billion TL in fines. We are currently recruiting 1500 civil servants through ÖSYM. When the training is completed, we will send these civil servants to the field. 

The world experienced a major epidemic. The world experienced an inflation it had never seen before. Everyone in Europe is complaining about the cost of living. Due to Russia and Ukraine, there was a supply shortage regarding energy. The third was the earthquake disaster. We lost 50 thousand of our lives. During this period, there were those who engaged in hoarding. 

There was chaos in individual automobile sales, this chaos is over. Problems regarding real estate are also over. We also applied the 6-month 6 thousand km rule to motorcycles. This decline in automobiles became an advantage for the consumer. There was a bubble in the market, our government removed it. 

In the real estate market, we prevented manipulative price increases by blocking fake ads on classified ad sites. When a wave of increases came, there was anger, and that was prevented. There was also a decline in rents. The Ministry of Justice started the conciliation mechanism. We are also regulatory and supervisory, preventing fluctuations in this market. The Ministry of Treasury also collects taxes from rent. We are in such coordination between ministries. 

The minimum wage will come into effect on January 31, 2024. Using the increase in the wages of working people as an excuse to raise prices is an attempt at exorbitant pricing. We will pay attention to this in our inspections. The rate of increase in the minimum wage does not increase in the same way as costs. In other words, the mentality of 'fuel increased by 20 percent, let me raise prices by 20 percent' is an extremely unfair commercial act. It is an act that can be punished in inspections. Our citizens should also follow this. Whoever is doing exorbitant pricing, shopping should not be done from there. 

Our goal is to increase the potential of e-exports within total exports to 10 percent by 2028. 

We are doing our best to strengthen our tradesmen. In 21 years, 435 billion liras of financing support was provided with very low financing costs. Our Ministry of Labor is working on the number of BAĞ-KUR premium days. Appropriate efforts will be fulfilled on this issue. Currently, our effort to revive the earthquake regions continues. The promise regarding EYT was also kept. 

This year, there is a 4-5 fold increase rate in electric cars. Turkey has caught up with the era regarding electric cars. We are the 6th country in Europe and the 13th in the world in automotive production. We will earn 36 billion dollars in export revenue this year. Our citizens can use TOGG safely. 20 thousand TOGGs will be produced this year. In the coming years, this will reach 200 thousand. 

Investments are being made in the transition process to battery production. Our state provides incentives in this field. Volkswagen will also produce electric commercial vehicles at its production facility in Gölcük.

News Source: 12punto