Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan held a meeting with members of the Service Exporters Association via video conference.
Stating that almost every branch of the services sector is full of success stories for the country, Pekcan said that Turkey has a net exporter position and a solid international position in the services sector.
Pekcan pointed out that services are among the sectors most affected by the recent new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic and said:
“This is already the case worldwide. We know that tourism and logistics activities are among the most affected sectors, but we also have the services sector where the opposite is experienced. The e-commerce sector is at the forefront of these. The demand for e-commerce has increased significantly in this period. Hopefully, we will also be in the ministry We will be publishing electronic commerce statistics through the Electronic Commerce Information System for the first time by the end of this month. Raising awareness about e-Commerce is also a very positive situation for the future of the sector. Of course, our main goal is to eliminate the conditions brought by the pandemic as soon as possible and to ensure that all our service lines are in the normal market. “To regain normal conditions and continue on their way in a sound and sustainable way.”
Stating that Turkey has entered the normalization process, as in many European countries, Pekcan said, “We expect to get through these days as soon as possible with the joint effort of our government and society and your valuable participation, and to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the world in the fields of economy, trade and services, as well as in the field of health. World Trade According to the organization’s data, global service exports amounted to 6 trillion dollars last year, and we see that we, as Turkey, can get a much larger share of this market.” made his assessment.
Pekcan emphasized that last year, the services trade surplus increased by 18.6 percent, from 31 billion dollars to 36.9 billion dollars, and that they saw this as a sign that they were quite successful and on the right track in services trade, and continued as follows:
“We will continue to work together with all our strength, without complacency, to ensure the sustainability of this success we have achieved as a dynamic country with big goals and to strengthen our branding capabilities. Many of our support mechanisms for our service sector are being implemented effectively. Health tourism, informatics, which are among the key sectors of our service exports “We continue to support expenses for our management consultancy, real estate, logistics, gastronomy, retail and accommodation sectors, as well as the film, TV series and education sectors, to open up to international markets and to gain competitive power in these markets and to become permanent.”
“Record support budget”
Explaining that they have implemented a series of support mechanisms to increase exports and added value in the service sector, Pekcan said that they have made the necessary arrangements to eliminate the grievances that may occur in state aid applications due to the epidemic.
Pekcan gave information about the support figures for the sector and said:
“Within the scope of our support programs for our service exporters, we have provided 635 million lira of support to our 1166 exporters from 2012 to this year. 254 million lira of this was realized in 2019. While 635 million lira of support has been given to our exporters since 2012, we have put 500 million lira of resources in our 2020 budget alone. “Due to the impact of the pandemic we are in, we see that only 91 million 500 thousand lira of this amount has been used. In this sense, we, as the Ministry, have set a budget that will be considered a record, and we are ready to use this budget with your current motivation, hopefully by the end of the year.”
Minister Pekcan stated that the more the overseas activities of service exporters increase, the more support they will provide will increase accordingly.
Reminding that the practice of granting the right to a specially stamped passport continues, Pekcan stated that 598 passports have been identified to 362 service exporting companies to date.
“Health services seem to come to the fore”
Emphasizing that the quality of Turkish service sectors is proven and accepted worldwide, Pekcan made the following evaluation:
“Among the service sectors, one of the sectors with the most potential is health services. As our President underlined, it seems that our health services sector will also come to the fore with this pandemic process. We export our TV series, computer games, contracting and technical consultancy services to many countries. Our country is currently among the countries that attract the most foreign patients. As of 2019, we have served approximately 750 thousand international health tourists. The number of our international students, who are voluntary cultural, economic and trade ambassadors of our country, has reached 172 thousand. Our Ministry’s support programs have started in 2011. Since then, our health tourism income has doubled
While the number of international patients visiting our country has also tripled. We expect a several-fold increase in this. Likewise, the number of international students, which was around 30 thousand at that time, has increased 6 times. The success story of our country with its strong health system and the new hospitals it opened during the pandemic will bear fruit after the epidemic. “As stated by our President, a very suitable environment is available to achieve Turkey’s goals of becoming a ‘health base’.”
“Turkish TV series are in 146 countries”
Pekcan stated that Turkish TV series are admired and watched in different geographies and create a social impact. Sharing the information that Turkish TV series are watched by approximately 700 million people in 146 countries, Pekcan said, “Maybe this figure has increased now. We are in second place in the TV series industry, leaving many countries behind, just behind the USA.” said.
Emphasizing that the exporters in the digital game sector, one of the most important components of the IT sector, have achieved a success story that makes everyone proud these days, Pekcan said, “Peak Games had become one of the important players of the sector, benefiting from the support of our Ministry. We see its acquisition by Zynga as a very important example in terms of the potential of service trade.” “We see that it is possible to count similar successes in all branches of the service sectors. The number of our success stories will continue to increase in the future, thanks to you.” he said.
Pekcan added that, as the ministry, they will continue to do their best to ensure that service exporters benefit from the new opportunities that will arise after the epidemic.
Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/ekonomi/destekler-hizmet-ihracatcisini-bekleyen/1872897
