Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz highlighted Tuesday Türkiye’s rising commerce relations with African nations as he held a joint news convention with Lesotho’s Prime Minister Samuel Ntsokoane Matekane following one-on-one and inter-delegation conferences.
Expressing nice pleasure in internet hosting Matekane in Ankara, Yılmaz stated the go to is a historic event because it marks “the highest-level visit from the Kingdom of Lesotho to our country to date.”
“I believe this visit will pave the way for enhancing our relations with Lesotho and for intensifying high-level engagements in the upcoming period,” he stated.
Yılmaz highlighted that the Kingdom of Lesotho is one in every of Türkiye’s valued companions within the Southern African area, with constructive relations between the 2 nations.
“Türkiye continues to contribute to the development and progress of the African continent on the basis of brotherhood. Through institutions like Turkish Airlines, which flies to over 60 destinations on the continent, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), the Maarif Foundation and the Yunus Emre Institute (YEE), we maintain our strong ties with our brotherly continent,” he famous.
Furthermore, he recalled that to strengthen the relations with the continent, the variety of Turkish Embassies in Africa, which stood at 12 in 2002, has elevated to 44 at this time.
“Our President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has visited 31 African countries, including during his tenure as Prime Minister, and closely follows the successful execution of our Africa Partnership Policy,” stated Yılmaz.
“In the coming period, we aim to expand our diplomatic network in Africa, including Maseru,” he added, referring to the capital of Lesotho.
“We are also pleased to learn of Lesotho’s intention to establish an embassy in Ankara in the near future,” he stated.
Moreover, Yılmaz additionally touched upon industrial relations, noting that Türkiye’s commerce quantity with African nations, which was $5.4 billion in 2003, elevated sevenfold to $37 billion in 2023.
“Our goal is to raise our trade volume with the continent to $50 billion in the shortest time possible. The capital position of Turkish investments in Africa has reached $2.3 billion as of 2023, and the total value of Turkish investments is estimated to have reached $10 billion,” he stated.
Yılmaz additionally said that Turkish building companies have undertaken 1,977 tasks value $91.6 billion throughout the African continent so far.
“Our trade volume with Sub-Saharan African countries, which was $1.35 billion in 2003, reached $12.4 billion in 2023,” he additionally stated.
Regarding commerce and funding with Lesotho, the vp acknowledged that progress has been restricted up to now however expressed optimism {that a} new period would start following Prime Minister Matekane’s go to.
“During our meetings with the Prime Minister, both one-on-one and with our delegations, we agreed to develop our relations in the fields of trade, agriculture, education, tourism, and the environment and to take new steps to enhance mutual trade and investments,” he maintained.
“Our initial target is to reach the trade volume of $50 million, but in the long term, I believe we can easily achieve much higher levels,” he added.
Matekane, for his half, emphasised that the go to to Türkiye was of historic significance and stated that the events held essential conferences to take their shut relations one step additional.
“The two countries have decided to open mutual diplomatic missions,” he stated, including that his nation will do its greatest on this regard.
Source: www.dailysabah.com