Speaking at the opening of Istanbul Fashion Connection-IFCO organized by the İstanbul Apparel Exporters’ Association (İHKİB) in cooperation with the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) and with the support of the Ministry of Trade, Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat said that they are working for further increase export supports in the 2024 budget. Stating that the number of exporters has increased to 115 thousand, Bolat explained that as the ministry, they offer export support to exporters in more than 100 different items.
Bolat said: “We invite you all to take advantage of these opportunities. I invite you all to increase our efforts for more production, more exports, and more employment within the framework of the vision of Türkiye’s century in the 100th year of our Republic,” adding that the ministry announced the 2028 Vision Document. He noted that in this context, they target 400 billion dollars of goods exports and 200 billion dollars of service exports in 2028 and that they will make this happen step by step.
Bolat said that in 20 years, the national income has increased 3.5 times to 906 billion dollars and the export of goods has increased from 36 billion dollars to 254 billion dollars, also, the export of services has increased from 14.5 billion dollars to 90 billion dollars and will exceed 120 billion dollars this year, and that in total, they will bring about 380 billion dollars of foreign currency to Türkiye as exports of goods and services.
Firms will be relieved with export supports
Ömer Bolat reminded that after he took office, Türk Eximbank opened loans for exporters and after this development, private banks reduced their loan interest rates from 48 percent to 25 percent overnight. Bolat continued his remarks as follows:
“In addition, our Central Bank has increased rediscount credits to exporters by 5 times while pursuing a policy that suppresses domestic demand within the framework of the fight against inflation. The daily limit increased from 300 million liras to 1.5 billion liras. Of this, 1 billion liras will be allocated through Eximbank and 500 million liras through banks. Hopefully, we, as the ministry, will make our export supports available to you all the way. In the 2024 budget, our efforts to increase export supports much more are endless. We will also achieve this.”
“We will always stand by the textile and apparel industry”
Underlining that textile and apparel is a vital sector for Türkiye, Ömer Bolat said: “We will always stand by this sector, all production and investment. As we stand by our workers, tradesmen, farmers, pensioners, and traders, we will always stand by our exporters and industrialists 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we will continue to work for them and to strengthen the country’s economy.”
Explaining that humanity has always needed textile, food and housing sectors, Bolat disclosed: “So these 3 sectors are always important and in demand. We sincerely congratulate the producers and exporters of the textile and apparel sector. You have engraved the concepts of ‘Turkish goods, Turkish apparel, Turkish carpets, Turkish home textiles, Turkish curtains, Turkish towels, Turkish cotton yarn fabric’ in the world. On this occasion, we will always continue to support this sector, which plays a very important role in employment. This exhibition will be a great occasion and opportunity for Istanbul to become the fashion center of Europe and to promote Turkish apparel, Turkish textiles, Turkish carpets and home textiles better.”