Turkey and Qatar aim to double trade to $5bn

Reuters/Turkish Presidential Press Office

Turkey and Qatar have set a $5 billion bilateral trade target, more than double the level reported last year, a Turkish minister has confirmed.

The figure is expected to be reached once the trade and economic partnership agreement between the two countries comes into force, Turkish trade minister Ömer Bolat said on the social messaging platform X, formerly Twitter.

President Tayyip Erdoğan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani co-chaired the ninth meeting of the Turkey-Qatar supreme strategic committee this week, where 12 cooperation agreements were signed in various fields.

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In July, Erdoğan conducted a three-day Gulf tour visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Turkey’s finance minister Mehmet Şimşek embarked on a second tour of Gulf countries as part of his government’s drive to attract foreign investment in October.

Trade volume between the two countries increased by 17 percent year on year in 2022 to $2.2 billion, Qatari Ambassador to Ankara Sheikh Mohammed bin Nasser bin Jassim Al Thani told Anadolu Agency.

Total investments by Qatari companies in Turkey stand at $33.2 billion, he said.

Last month, Bolat said that Turkey’s bilateral trade with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries surged to $22.7 billion in 2022 from $2.1 billion in 2002.

“There is an 11-fold increase in our trade,” he said at the GCC-Turkey Economic Forum in Istanbul.