Turkey's Africa initiative is fraught with risks

 

By Metin DEMIRSAR

 

Istanbul (Dunya) – Wealthy Africans are snapping up Turkish-designed apparel at a retail clothing store owned by the company Sinerji in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Contractor Yapi Merkezi is building a $1.7 billion railroad project in Ethiopia and the Korteks Textile has become South Africa's biggest producer of curtains.

The three companies are among hundreds of Turkish firms pushing relentlessly into Africa, increasing exports to the continent, carrying out a burst of new investments and winning billions of dollars in construction contracts. 

Supported by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, a flurry of embassy openings, new Turkish Airlines fights to the continent, and a series of Turkish-owned private schools, Turkish businessmen are muscling their way into the continent, long dominated by the former colonial powers. 

Turkey's commerce with the continent still remains miniscule, but it is growing tremendously. 

Some 500 Turkish companies have invested in the continent, the bulk in the North African countries, which were once a part of Turkish Ottoman Empire and where Turkey still remains popular. 

 

In 2012, the country's trade volume with the 54 nations of Africa reached $18.757 billion, an increase of 9.7% from 2011 and up nearly a four-fold since 2003, when two way-commerce stood at only $5 billion, the Turkish Statistics Institute reported. 

Turkish exports to Africa in 2012  stood at $13.301 billion, or 8.8% of all of its foreign sales, while its imports were only $6.466 billion, or  2.5% of all of its external purchases.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Erdogan and his government see the continent, with its 1 billion people and $1.909 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as a potentially huge market that could one-day supersede the European Union as Turkey's main trading partner.

In a push to support the country's businessmen, Turkey now has   embassies in 31 African countries from 12 back in 2009, and provides up to $750 million a year in humanitarian and economic aid to the continent. Since 1991, it has also granted 3,254 scholarships to students from Africa to allow them to study in Turkish universities.

Turkey's embassies in Africa are located in Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Turkish Airlines (THY) now flies to 27 destinations in 25 countries in Africa and aims to overtake Air France as the leading international carrier in Africa.

In the past 17 months Mr. Erdoğan has traveled to several African states, including Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and Somalia. 

 

During a tour of the West African countries Gabon, Niger and Senegal last month, Mr. Erdogan accused the former colonial powers of plundering Africa.

 

Erdoğan emphasized Africa's Western colonizers had stripped the continent bare and said Turkey was not one of the countries that sees diamonds, gold and oil when it looks at the impoverished continent. 

 

"Contrary to others, we see our common history, we see only friends and brothers when we look at Africa," Erdoğan said in an address to Gabon's parliament.

 

Obstacles 

But Turkey's business incursion into Africa faces risks, experts said. 

Sudden political upheavals on the continent, continued political instability, tribal feuding, and lack of experts on Sub-Saharan countries in its universities, business community and in the government mar Turkey's moves to bolster investment, trade and provide contracting services in Africa. 

Months of civil war that led to the ouster of Libyan dictator Muammer Gadhafi caused around $15 billion in lost business and ruined job sites for Turkish contractors who had controlled Libya's construction business for more than 40 years.

Foreign instigated tribal warfare on the continent also endangers Turkish investments, particularly in Central Africa.

Long focused on the European Union, the country also lacks sufficient experts on the African continent, particularly in the Foreign Ministry and the Economy Ministry and the business world.

Only one university in Turkey has scholars who are familiar with sub-Saharan Africa.