The China International Import Expo, the first import fair in China, which has attracted worldwide attention with its import target of $10 trillion for the next five years, will kick off for the second time this year in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10.
Some 100 Turkish companies will be attending the giant event in a 4,000-square-meter booth area, five times larger than last year, as part of the Turkish National Participation Organization, which is held under the auspices of the Trade Ministry, coordinated by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) and undertaken by the Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters Association (İKMİB).
Speaking at the introductory meeting of the fair yesterday, TİM Chairman İsmail Gülle said cooperation agreements in last year's fair, in which a total of 38 Turkish companies participated under the national participation organization again, amounted to $620 million.
"We expect a greater interest and larger-scale trade agreements this year. This is because our traditional markets, as you know, are wavered by trade wars and issues such as Brexit. Meanwhile, the slowing global demand has also led to a revision of expectations for global trade performance. The 2018 growth performance of the EU, which is our biggest trading partner, remained below 2 percent, standing at 1.8 percent. For this reason, it is one of the most important issues to set new routes and enter new markets," said Gülle.
He further remarked that it is important for exporters to trade between China and Turkey and extent to Asian countries, especially China, which are the potential for the future, as well as their traditional markets. This is because current and future demands are intensifying and will intensify in these countries.
Meanwhile, China ranked 16th in Turkey's exports last year at $2.91 billion, while it ranked second in the country's imports with $20.7 billion.
"The heart of the trade will beat where there are a great number of human beings. Such import and export fairs, which we join under the national organization, will lead to taking bigger steps with a mutual win-win formula with China in terms of Turkey's multidimensional foreign policy as well. This step taken by our exporters will have a positive reflection on the relations between the two countries in the future and will play a role in the implementation of new projects. One of TİM's primary targets is that Turkish exporters will have their due share in China's import volume which is exported to rise to $3 trillion," the TİM chairman noted.
On the other hand, İKMİB Chairman Adil Pelister highlighted that China, which has set a goal of reaching $10 trillion in imports in the next five years, has opened a new trade gate full of opportunities for Turkish exporters.
"We see that China is one of the four target countries, in addition to Russia, India and Mexico, which the Turkish Ministry of Trade has declared to be priority export markets for 2019. The export initiative of China, which imports nearly $2 trillion worth goods every year, offers a strategic market for Turkish exporters to take a new position in the Asia Pacific and reaching our export targets within the framework of our 2023 vision goals," said Pelister.
He said sales and cooperation agreements amounting to $58 billion were signed at last year's China International Import Expo, which was attended by more than 3,600 exhibitors from 172 countries and brought together 400,000 purchasing professionals.
"With this giant fair, where we will take place in a wide range of areas, from food to medical equipment, and from chemical products to service products, we will once again carry the quality of Turkish products and the strength of Turkish exporters to China," İKMİB Chairman Pelister noted.