Business world eyes $10 billion exports to Saudi Arabia

Türkiye's exports to Saudi Arabia can increase to a total of $10 billion annually with the normalization of relations between the two countries, a leading business representative has said.

"Today, a delegation of 35 businesspeople is coming to Türkiye with [Crown] Prince [Mohammed bin Salman] of Saudi Arabia," Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) President Nail Olpak said on June 22 at the opening of the board's new headquarters.

"They are visiting our country after a long time, and businesspeople from the strongest companies are in the delegation. Among them are important names who played a very effective role in the trade between our countries. We had total exports of $7.3 billion to Saudi Arabia, based on the latest figures before the trade stopped. Therefore, we can say that we lost $7 billion due to the problems experienced in the recent period. With the renormalization of relations, we can talk about an export potential of $10 billion dollars to Saudi Arabia. Especially the contracting sector will be very important in the upcoming period," he added.

A Saudi delegation led by bin Salman held talks in Ankara with Turkish officials on June 22, and the crown prince had a face-to-face meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The two sides discussed "the possibility of developing and diversifying trade and boosting investments and partnerships in various fields," according to a joint statement released after the talks.

Olpak also stated that Türkiye still has a logistical superiority in the regional sense with the trade it carries out without disrupting the supply chain during the pandemic process, foreseeing that the year will end with $260 billion of exports.

"Germany leads the way in our exports, the United...