Export Credit Bank of Turkey (Türk Eximbank) General Manager Adnan Yıldırım said yesterday that finance and export credit agencies they have met abroad have positive perceptions of Turkey, adding that finance and business circles, after seeing Turkey's high growth rate against all odds, strongly believe that the country's trade, exports and trade relations with the world will improve further.
"There is a strong belief in Turkey and the Turkish economy both in Japan and here [in London]. I foresee this will continue to rise in 2018," Yıldırım said.
Yıldırım met with representatives of the Turkish business world at a meeting organized by the Turkish European Brands Association in London.
Yıldırım explained that they discussed the steps to be taken next year at the meetings they attended in London, saying that they plan to raise $4.4 billion in funds, including $1.2 billion in bilateral loans, $1 billion in sukuk and eurobond exports, $1.6 billion in syndicated loans and $680 million in loans from supranational institutions, to support exporters in 2018.
According to Yıldırım, Türk Eximbank provides financing not only to exporters residing in Turkey, but also to their foreign buyers abroad in return for purchasing goods from Turkey. He further said that they want to increase the financing in question with the aim of diversifying goods and services exported from Turkey, increasing the share of exporters in international trade and providing competitiveness and security to Turkish companies in international markets within the framework of international lending programs.
Yıldırım also emphasized that they are holding negotiations with demanding countries and commercial enterprises that will be able to use these demands with the support by the Economy Ministry.
Explaining that the agreements with other export-import banks are an important instrument, Yıldırım said they are trying to increase demand for Turkey's exports by supporting both Turkish exporters and their foreign buyers in the coming and following years. "However, it is hard to share figures about it, as we did not have such intense work abroad in the past and as we do not have a study to make comparisons. We already have $1.1 billion that we are financing in our portfolio right now. We can use a significant portion of the resources we believe we will find in our quests for foreign buyers," Yıldırım said.
He added that they continue to seek resources to finance the projects worth $3 billion that Turkish companies plan to implement at home and in African and Central Asian countries. "We think that we can supply nearly half of these resources from the Japanese market over the next three years."
Yıldırım said that they have been negotiating with corporate investors abroad to finance projects worth $3 billion that Turkish companies plan to carry out in Turkey, African and Central Asian countries, citing the talks they held in Japan in the first week of December within this framework.
According to Yıldırım, it is possible to make use of Japan's negative interest policy and fund-surplus opportunities by resorting to diversity in foreign fund resources. He added: "Broadly speaking, we learned in Japan that there is a $30 billion resource outside Japan that we have not been able to use. The Japanese Mizuho Bank management, with which we have been working on a stable basis for 20 years, made a plan and, accordingly, we held meetings with 15 organizations. Apart from that, we also held a reception in Japan to have the opportunity to meet with the organizations we had not met before. We think we will be able to take advantage of these meetings in our fund seeking in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
"We think we can supply nearly half of the planned resource from the Japanese market over the next three years." He said that the financing will be made available to exporters starting in the second half of 2018.
Yıldırım explained that they will continue to work on borrowing facilities to the extent that market conditions allow, and added that they are also seeking resources in other countries and regions. "That is why we are already in London and why we will also make similar efforts in other cities of Europe from now on. We will also hold non-deal roadshows in other European countries in the coming months. We can do this in Switzerland, Denmark, France and many others."