We hear a lot about the opportunities in India, China and Brazil, but we often tend to ignore the fantastic things that are happening in the Turkish economy. Turkey is the largest television producer, DVD producer and commercial vehicle producer in Europe; and the third largest yacht producer in the world. We don’t see these statistics often enough because we focus on the usual country groupings to which Turkey doesn’t belong - the European Union, the Middle East or North Africa and the BRIC countries.
Not enough people realise how stable the Turkish economy actually is. Goldman Sachs has recently named it as one of the most stable growing economies. Turkey did very well out of the recent global crisis and it didn’t suffer as much as so many other countries. Yes, there are small issues around payment at the moment, but these are issues which can be resolved quite comfortably within the law.
In fact, my main advice to companies considering Turkey as a market is to remember that the biggest barriers UK companies find when they are trading with Turkey are their own preconceptions. Turkey is a member of the European Customs Union and that gives us a really easy access into trading in Turkey. However I think that British companies haven’t realised just the level of commitment they need. The biggest investment they will make in Turkey is their time, as they start to establish businesses. They need to examine the opportunities and look at potential partners very carefully.
This said, British goods and services are doing very well in Turkey at the moment. We’re finding a large number of products and services that are really getting legs in the market; design and technology particularly. In the construction sector we are seeing a lot of UK design. In a whole range of fields from green building through to general architecture and project management, UK companies are really starting to take off in partnership with some major Turkish construction companies, and these partnerships are finding good business in former Soviet Central Asia and right across North Africa.
Equally we’re working with a number of smaller companies who started off generally exporting into the Turkish automotive sector who are now finding that their products have great potential in the maritime sector, and are selling into the marine industry, where we do very well: many of the south-coast based technology firms are actually now well established in Istanbul.
There is obviously some speculation about Turkey’s accession to the European Union, and I am often asked whether now is the right time to invest, or whether British exporters should wait for the outcome of negotiations before taking the decision to build a relationship with Turkey.
Simply put, I think now is a great time to go into Turkey. The way Turkey is preparing itself for EU accession is clearly important in straightening out regulations. However it doesn’t matter in the long term whether Turkey is - or is not - a member of the European Union. The fact is that Turkey will be one of the largest economies in the world within 20 years. And that is why British companies should be interested in Turkey now.
UKTI can support UK companies every step of the way, guiding a business through these issues to develop its international trade potential and access overseas markets like Turkey. With a team of experts across the UK and Turkey, UKTI provides a cost effective service to make doing international business as easy as doing business in the UK.
For more information please visit www.ukinvest.gov.uk
