Bolat: Our goods and services exports reached 413 billion dollars

Trade Minister Ömer Bolat announced that goods and services exports reached 413 billion dollars as of the end of October. Bolat gave the figure at the "Konya Provincial Promotion Days" event organized by KONSİAD (Konya Industrialists and Businessmen's Association) and KONSİFED (Konya Industrialists and Business People Federation) at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport Nation's Garden. KONSİAD and KONSİFED Board Chairman Kemal Çelik and a large number of people from Konya attended the program; after the speeches, Çelik presented Bolat with a plaque.

Bolat described the point from which foreign trade was taken over as "36 billion dollars in goods exports and 14 billion dollars in services exports" and said the total had risen to 413 billion dollars, with exports increasing more than 8 times. The Minister stated that exports account for approximately 24-25 percent of national income, that is, one quarter of it.

In his balance sheet on the economy, Bolat said that Turkey had risen from a size of 238 billion dollars to 1.7 trillion dollars, an increase of about 7 times, and that real annual growth of 5.3 percent had been recorded on average over 24 years. He said the two major earthquakes taken over during his term in office meant a bill of 105 billion dollars and the loss of 53,500 lives, and that 11 cities were partially or completely destroyed.

Bolat, noting that 15 percent of the need is met from national resources through the Gabar and Raman oil wells and the Sakarya natural gas wells, said that in 2027 roughly two-thirds of households will be heated with domestic natural gas. The Minister stated that Turkey had entered among the world's top 10 countries in industry, that electricity production had increased more than 4 times, and that for more than half of the year production was carried out from renewable sources.

Bolat described COP31, under way in Antalya, as "the most successful summit in 30 years of history." He noted that nearly 100,000 international participants from abroad had come, along with heads of government, ministers and scientists from nearly 100 countries, and that the number of visitors during the 12-day event would far exceed 100,000. Bolat also reported that he had attended the Turkey-Qatar High-Level Strategic Council meeting held by the President and the Emir of Qatar, that five important agreements were signed between the two countries, and that one of them was the Cooperation Agreement for Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance.