Caglayan announces new provincial export strategy

The government has prepared a comprehensive list of Turkey's export products and expects to encourage each province to specialize in selling specific products to certain markets in an effort to diversify and boost Turkey's exports, Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan told reporters yesterday in Mersin. Turkey has a target of earning $500 billion from exports by 2023. Caglayan announced a study to define the export potential and competitive power of each of the 81 provinces in global export markets. The government carried out the study in cooperation with the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Caglayan said the government would encourage exporters in each province to concentrate on certain products and sell these products overseas. He said they studied consumer tendencies in 12 countries to which Turkey’s exports have increased relatively quickly. “Russia, Brazil and Malaysia are among these potential export markets. Making mention of African markets, the minister said Turkey has only a $10 billion share of this cake and that it must be increased.