The current momentum of joint efforts is encouraging optimism for a rise within the commerce quantity and investments between Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, as they mend ties following years of stress.
A serious joint business discussion board in Istanbul late final month reiterated what appears to be a powerful will for speedy progress and highlighted funding alternatives in each nations.
It got here at a time of a serious rebound in bilateral commerce quantity between Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, which stood at $3.7 billion in 2021 earlier than it surpassed this determine to achieve round $3.8 billion within the first 9 months of 2022.
Ankara and Riyadh have set a objective to spice up this determine initially to $10 billion (TL 187.44 billion) after which to $30 billion by 2030.
The rebound comes as Türkiye and Saudi Arabia this yr moved to fix ties following years of stress, which escalated considerably after the 2018 homicide of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul Consulate.
Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati, who attended the discussion board and held talks with Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih, stated they might proceed to work and cooperate to make sure that businesspeople profit from the funding alternatives supplied by the 2 nations.
According to statements by officers of the 2 nations, the discussion board, a second version of which is deliberate to be held in Riyadh in March, seeks for the Turkish personal sector to play a serious position within the megaprojects that Saudi Arabia will launch throughout the scope of its 2030 imaginative and prescient.
Promising integration, alternatives
“We are looking for partners in the Saudi markets. The opportunities are very large, and we need our Turkish brothers to put their hand in ours and help us and be with us and play a fundamental and important role,” stated Amer al-Ajmi, a Saudi investor and businessperson who can be govt vice chairman of the worldwide firm Al-Fanar.
Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” options plans to diversify its economic system away from fossil fuels by boosting tourism, actual property, commerce and logistics sectors and constructing new cities and services, all of which require big capital and cooperation to hold out.
“We are also present in the Turkish market and we are looking for opportunities in the field of renewable energy. We have invested in the Turkish markets for more than 10 years, and our company has achieved annual profits estimated at about $25 million,” al-Ajmi informed Daily Sabah.
He praised the Turkish market, saying that it’s “very large in terms of technical suppliers and contractors.”
“The Saudi-Turkish relationship is an eternal relationship that has existed since ancient times and is here to stay so that we can communicate, integrate and complement each other more, as our leaders said.”
Khaled Hussein al-Jahdali, a chairperson of Al-Haytham mining firm, burdened the discussion board’s significance as he hailed the relations between the 2 nations.
“We discussed opportunities with Turkish businessmen and investors, whether inside Türkiye or inside Saudi Arabia, and we signed several agreements with the Turkish side, regarding mining and aviation, and the field is promising between the two countries, and the future is promising to achieve the vision of our Kingdom 2030,” al-Jahdali informed Daily Sabah.
“Türkiye has a great history in the field of mining and there are many ores in it. Türkiye’s experience in these areas offers great benefits, and we hope that opportunities will be realized and integrated between the two parties,” he famous.
Saudi businessperson Ziyad al-Bassam, head of the Al-Bassam Group, stated Saudi Arabia and Türkiye had been the 2 largest economies within the area, stressing the truth that they’re each members of the G-20.
Al-Bassam additionally famous what he stated was a really massive quantity of integration between the 2 nations, particularly with the presence of nice funding alternatives throughout the scope of the dominion’s Vision 2030.
“We sensed an urgent desire from Turkish businessmen and investors to participate in these opportunities. In return, Saudi businessmen were briefed on the existing opportunities in Türkiye in order to invest,” al-Bassam added.
Elaborating on essentially the most outstanding areas to spend money on Türkiye, he burdened a number of, together with trade, tourism and the well being sector.
“In addition to that, the investor opts for the fields in which he has experience and conducts the necessary studies before investing,” al-Bassam stated.
Saudi investor and businessperson Maret al-Dhafeeri stated the discussion board was a good suggestion to extend funding and cooperation within the business sector between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye.
“If we look at each country separately, we see that it has aspirations that the other country can meet, and this contributes to accelerating cooperation between the two countries,” al-Dhafeeri stated.
Al-Dhafeeri believes that: “In order for this to happen, practical plans must be drawn up after the forum, for future steps that must be worked on and activated, such as setting up committees in every field, for example, a committee for the petrochemical sector and a committee for the emerging energy sector, etc., and work items are distributed so that we can speed up the process.”
Contracting sector revival
The revival of Türkiye’s relations with Saudi Arabia, in addition to different members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is claimed to have supplied a further impetus to a number of industries, spearheaded by the property sector, amid expectations of a rise in Gulf demand for actual property.
The current enchancment in relations opened the door for Turkish contractors to enter the “big market,” particularly as Saudi Arabia goals to construct tasks price $3.3 trillion over the subsequent 10 years, in accordance with the top of the Turkish Contractors Union (TMB), Erdal Eren.
Eren, in an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA), stated the rapprochement with the Gulf nations contributed to the revival of the contracting sector via the alternatives it supplied to interact in new tasks, whether or not in these nations or in different Islamic nations.
He believes that the top of the Federation of Saudi Contractors, Zakaria al-Abdul Qader, assuming the presidency of the Federation of Contractors of Islamic Countries offers a possibility for Turkish and Saudi contractors to boost their cooperation and partnerships.
“Turkish contractors consider that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Riyadh and the subsequent visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to Ankara opened a new page in the relations of the two countries,” Eren stated.
Erdoğan’s go to to Saudi Arabia in April marked the primary high-level go to in years. His journey was adopted by MBS’s journey to Türkiye in June.
The two leaders additionally met in November on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
