Minister Bolat: UAE can invest $30 billion in Turkey in five areas

Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat said that the United Arab Emirates could invest $30 billion in Turkey in the areas of food, logistics, pharmaceuticals and hospital management, infrastructure investments and technology. Meeting with reporters at the ministry on Monday, Bolat answered a question about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Gulf tour that will begin next week and include Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and said that technical work was ongoing. Noting that the UAE’s largest investment holding, ADQ, had held talks in Turkey, Bolat said, “They said they are open to offers in areas where there is $30 billion worth of investment in Turkey in the areas of food, logistics, pharmaceuticals and hospital management, infrastructure investments and startups and technology initiatives.” Bolat said that trade relations would also begin to pick up with some European countries, and that concrete steps would be taken in the fall following Erdoğan’s visit. Bolat, who stated that the approval processes regarding the Free Trade Agreements with Qatar, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine are ongoing, noted that work will be carried out on this issue with Indonesia, Japan and Thailand in the new period. Minister Bolat, while touching on trade supports, also pointed out that the capital of Eximbank was increased by 6 billion 800 million TL and the total capital increased to 20 billion 600 million TL. No second-hand car imports Minister Bolat was also asked about the issue of allowing second-hand car imports, which has been discussed in recent days. Bolat, who stated that automotive imports increased by 75 percent in the first six months of the year and became the largest import item along with gold, said that there was no work on their agenda for this reason. "Let's not shop from those selling at exorbitant prices" Minister Bolat, who also requested that the consumer report to the Ministry in case of observed exorbitant prices, continued his words as follows: "We are raiding all notifications. We are activating the control mechanism for all notifications made on social media or to our Ministry. One way to do this is conscious consumption. If there is such a seller, I should not shop from there; I should buy from whoever is selling reasonably. The Central Bank is carrying out the necessary work on price stability with all its might, while the Ministry of Treasury and Finance is carrying out it in the field of monetary and fiscal policies. Our Central Bank will carry out its struggle in monetary and foreign exchange institution policies. As the Ministry of Trade, we will do our duty of deterrence through regulation, supervision and imposing sanctions. Our consumers will not shop from places that practice exorbitant prices; they will do so from more affordable places. In this way, we will increase competition in the market." When it was stated that some markets applied the VAT increases before the effective date, Bolat said, "Our inspection teams check whether the VAT difference is reflected as VAT or whether they are trying to harm the consumer by adding much more, these inspections are carried out." Bolat also explained that they are working on the wholesale market law and said, "The wholesale markets are operated by municipalities. Municipalities state that they have financial difficulties in building new and modern wholesale markets. The most important thing is to process the product in the field without causing too much loss by reducing the number of intermediaries and present it to the consumer. Vegetables and fruits rot rapidly in a day or two. We see that our farmers work with brokers and middlemen in the wholesale market due to not being able to establish cooperatives among themselves. Our duty is to accelerate the rapid production of our producers through cooperatives. Our Ministry's work continues on renewing the wholesale market law." Exporters' financing channels are opening Bolat pointed out that banks started to open the credit taps after the Central Bank increased the policy interest rate and said, "We had a meeting with our Central Bank last week. We conveyed the difficulties and concerns of exporters in accessing financing. We are pleased to see a very positive perspective there as well. Our exporters should not worry, financing channels are opening." “We plan to accelerate Turkey-EU relations” Providing information about relations with the EU and the updating process of the Customs Union, Bolat noted the following: “We observed that many EU leaders are eager to work with Turkey again after the elections. In the upcoming process, we demand that the updating negotiations for the Customs Union be quickly initiated and concluded in the medium term. At the most recent EU Leaders’ Summit 10 days ago, leaders tasked the EU Commission with ‘Prepare an evaluation report on Turkey-EU relations.’ This is also an important development. That report will be out soon. We, as the Ministry of Trade, are also keen on this issue. My Deputy Minister Mustafa Tuzcu will go to Brussels in the coming days. I also intend to meet with the EU Vice President Responsible for Enlargement. At the very least, we plan to accelerate and strengthen Turkey-EU relations by turning the period when the tensions have disappeared into action with a proactive approach.”