Arab inflows to Turkey rises

Arab investment in Turkey totaled $10.6 billion at the end of last year, according to Ibrahim S. Dabdoub, a group chief executive of the National Bank of Kuwait. “Nearly 2,000 Arab companies have investments in Turkey and [there is] more to come,” said Dabdoub, adding that a drop in exports to the Arab world in 2011 was likely to be temporary. “Turkey has become an attractive spot for Arab investment and trade,” said Dabdoub. Bilateral trade flow between Turkey and Kuwait has increased by an average of 18 percent per year since 2002. “Fourteen percent of Turkish exports currently go to Arab countries.”Turkey’s total trade with the Arab world stood at nearly $24 billion at the end of last year, an increase of 14 percent over the previous year, according to official figures. Turkey’s trade has grown by an annual average of 18 percent since 2002, while the growth rate of Turkey’s trade with European Union countries over the same term was 13 percent. The figures show that the growth in trade with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, has been even more rapid since 2002, totaling $9.3 billion, representing a 21 percent increase.