Trade between Ukraine and Turkey in 2020, despite pandemic restrictions and slowdowns, remained at pre-pandemic levels and amounted to about $5 billion, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Turkey Andrii Sybiha said at the first constituent meeting of the Ukrainian part of the Ukrainian-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“Last year’s turnover was about $5 billion. We have managed to maintain the levels of the pre-pandemic year. This is important,” Sybiha said.
The diplomat also noted that trade between the two countries had been growing by about 10-15% for the last four years. He recalled that tourist flows from Ukraine to Turkey reached 1.5 million tourists before the pandemic and about 1 million tourists last year.
“We have reached such a level of strategic partnership, when every element of it works. We must convert the achieved level of political dialogue into concrete economic projects,” Sybiha said, addressing Ukrainian business representatives.
He said the signing of a free trade agreement was promising for Ukrainian businesses.
“We are now on a very positive track of concluding a free trade agreement. It will contain important elements for Ukrainian businesses and its prospects will definitely be significant. Now we have $5 billion in turnover, and we clearly see that following the conclusion of the agreement, we will reach $10 billion very quickly,” Sybiha said.
The diplomat also noted Turkey’s opportunities to enter the markets of third countries, including the Middle East and Africa, Turkey’s positive experience in implementing public-private partnership projects and supplying value-added products.
According to him, work is now underway to reach agreements on providing soft loans to businessmen for the implementation of joint Ukrainian-Turkish projects.
The diplomat welcomed the establishment of the Ukrainian-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the holding of the first constituent meeting of its Ukrainian part and the election of the governing body. (Ukrinform/Business World Magazine)