The Texhibition Fair, organised by the Istanbul Textile and Raw
Materials Exporters Association (İTHİB) at the Istanbul Expo
Centre, started yesterday. The Turkish Commerce Minister Ömer
Bolat, Istanbul Governor Davut Gül, the President of Turkish
Exporters Assembly (TİM) Mustafa Gültepe, İTHİB President Ahmet
Öksüz, and many guests attended the opening of the fair. Minister
Bolat made an opening speech and stated that textile and ready-made
clothing were the first industrial sectors in Turkiye.
He noted that signals of a serious improvement were received in
the textile and apparel industries in the first 2 months of the
year and added that there was a 6 percent increase in textile and
raw material exports in January and February.
“Our exports reached 1 billion 587 million dollars, and
hopefully we will exceed the level of 9 billion 456 million dollars
in 2023. The decreasing trend in the garment industry has also
approached its minimum. It was 4.5 percent. Hopefully, they will
start to see growth as of spring, and with the increase in demand
in Europe and America, we will improve the figures in apparel. As
the Ministry of Commerce, we stand by exporters. We allocate 60
percent of our budget to you,” he said.
Minister Bolat also drew attention to the narrowing in the
foreign trade deficit. He pointed out that they managed to achieve
a decline in imports, and the ratio of exports to imports increased
to 75 percent. Bolat noted that they saved 13.5 billion dollars in
the foreign trade deficit in two months. He noted that the foreign
trade deficit, which was 122.5 billion dollars in May 2023,
decreased to 93 billion dollars in February. Bolat stated that
there was a decrease of 29 billion dollars in 9 months. Bolat added
that Turkiye’s need for foreign currency has decreased, and they
have achieved this by closing the foreign trade deficit and current
account deficit.
Bolat emphasised the importance of the textile and apparel
industry’s compliance with the “Green Deal”, and noted that
compliance with the green transformation is very important in order
not to be at a disadvantage when exporting to the European Union.
Explaining the support they provide in this regard, Bolat said that
the consultancy service expenses received by companies within the
scope of the Green Deal Compliance Project Support, which was
recently implemented, can reach up to 10 million lira.
He explained that it would be supported by the ministry.
Talking about the advantages provided by corporate tax for
exporters and the financing provided by Türk Eximbank, Minister
Bolat said, “Eximbank’s capital has been increased for the third
time in 9 months. We will provide promotion and brand support to
textile and ready-made clothing exporters with the changes we have
made in support of the Turquality promotion project. In the
earthquake zone, which is the centre of textile. We extended the
Turquality support programs for our provinces for another
year.”
Minister of Commerce Bolat said that Turkiye continues to be a
production and supply base in textile, ready-made clothing, and
other related sectors. He stated that Covid-19 revealed the
importance of the supply chain Bolat continued: “The epidemic
showed that Turkiye is a country that provides supply, logistics,
and can sell very high-quality products in 2-3 days, and provided
great support and motivation to our exports. The 1 trillion dollar
threshold was exceeded for the first time in the history of the
Republic, and the national income per capita in Turkiye, which
reached a national income of 1 trillion 119 billion dollars, rose
to 13 thousand 110 dollars.”
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