President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday that confidence in Türkiye's economic stability has strengthened following the country's May presidential polls, highlighting the focus on establishing a "sustainable growth climate."
"We are pleased to observe that confidence in our country's economic stability has strengthened after the elections," the Turkish leader said in his address at an event organized by the Türkiye-U.S. Business Council (TAIK) in New York.
Highlighting the substantial contributions of Turkish business circles to the American economy, Erdoğan noted that Turkish companies' direct investments in the U.S. have reached approximately $8.6 billion (TL 232.64 billion) over the past decade.
"We will mutually increase these investment figures with the efforts of business representatives," the president said.
He said Türkiye is focused on establishing a "sustainable growth climate" through policies that prioritize investment, employment, production and exports.
Turning to the nation's medium-term program, President Erdoğan said Türkiye aims to "eliminate the factors that increase inflation by applying the tools of fiscal and income policies without compromising economic growth."
Emphasizing the longstanding alliance between Türkiye and the United States under the NATO framework, he expressed Türkiye's desire to enhance and sustain this partnership, which he said plays a crucial role in ensuring security, peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region.
"Our economic and commercial engagements with the U.S. constitute a vital aspect of our bilateral ties. Over the past decade, our bilateral trade volume has surged by 1.5 times," he noted.
The Turkish leader said the U.S. became the second-largest destination for Turkish exports and the fifth-largest source of imports.
"By the end of 2022, our bilateral trade volume had exceeded $32 billion," he said, reiterating the target to reach $100 billion.
"As we strengthen our political ties with America, we should also broaden and diversify our cooperation in the economic sphere," he added.
President Erdoğan also emphasized that they were pleased with the course of relations with the U.S. in tourism and said that with the decrease in the epidemic's impact, over 1 million American tourists were hosted in Türkiye in 2022, and they hope that this number will increase even more in the coming period.
The president also expressed his hope to resolve issues stemming from unilateral actions such as imposing additional customs duties in the steel and aluminum sectors by the U.S.
"Also, we expect the impediments to the development of our cooperation in the defense industry to be eliminated as soon as possible," he added.