Turkey’s construction sector has nearly doubled the value of projects abroad in 2021, regaining momentum after a halt in the sector during 2020, the nation’s trade minister said on Tuesday.
Local building contractors that undertook projects worth $15.2 billion in 2020 have enabled this figure to reach $29.3 billion in 2021, Mehmet Muş said.
He was speaking at a meeting of the Turkish Contractors Association (TMB) held to discuss and evaluate the past year.
Muş said that the exports of services are as important to them as the export of goods, noting that the services sector has a very important place in the Turkish economy with the foreign exchange inflow it provides, high employment and its contribution to the export of products.
Commenting on the problems caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the minister said the pandemic and related restrictions in 2020 caused the value of projects undertaken by local construction firms to decrease some 20% to $15 billion.
However, last year was a year in which the sector rebounded, Muş said, as it has undertaken almost twice the value of projects carried out in 2020.
The latest figure made the number of projects undertaken by Turkey’s building contractors in 131 countries so far reach 11,093, while the total value of the projects undertaken has reached up to $451.5 billion.
Muş said that the construction contracting sector last reached this level of business in the 2012-2013 period when it broke a record, with $31 billion.
"Hopefully, in the upcoming period, we will continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our business world, and we will rise above these levels," he said.
"Even in the face of an unprecedented shock like the COVID-19 pandemic," Muş said, "the projects that the sector has undertaken are important indicators of how much the Turkish construction sector has developed, that it has been able to achieve its pre-pandemic position and go beyond it."
Evaluating the markets that the sector is operating in, Muş stressed that the Turkish construction industry is still very strong in its traditional markets of the Middle East, North Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
However, he said, particularly in the last period, "We have been increasing our activity quite strongly in Sub-Saharan Africa."
While CIS countries took a 55% share in the projects undertaken in 2021, Sub-Saharan Africa received 17%, the Middle East 13% and Europe 10%.
"Among these rates, Sub-Saharan Africa surpassed our traditional market, the Middle East, this year," Muş said.
"Russia ranks first among the countries with the highest project cost ($11.2 billion), as in previous years," he also commented.
Iraq has become the second country where Turkey has undertaken the most projects, with a total value of $3.6 billion.
Among the top 10 countries, Turkey's traditional markets such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Algeria have kept their place, Muş said, while there were new countries, including three Sub-Saharan African states and Poland.
Stating that they are also aware of the financial difficulties that prevent the building contracting sector from receiving new business opportunities, Muş said, "We are trying to increase the effectiveness of the loan opportunities provided by Türk Eximbank."
Besides, he said, companies from countries with strong financing opportunities and Turkish firms should cooperate in third countries, as the ministry works toward this via joint collaborations.