By Cem Perdar
Geographically, Turkey is a bridge between Europe and Asia. Due to its location, surrounded by sea on three sides, Turkey has always been the center of great trade between Europe, Middle East and Africa. Besides its geographical importance, Turkey has been playing an important role in world exports for many years as a major producer. For Turkey, which ranks 27th among the world exporters, the African continent has been an important target and strategic partner since the beginning of the 2000s.
Turkey’s attempt to accelerate its political, military, cultural and economic relations with African countries started with the “Opening to Africa Action Plan” prepared in 1998. This plan has gained momentum since 2002 and in 2005, the “Year of Africa” was declared in Turkey. In the same year, Turkey became an observer in the African Union.
The African continent has recently become a region where Turkey attaches special importance to its relations. It is also possible to accept this as an important indicator of Turkey’s multilateral foreign policy understanding. Turkey, thanks to its developed industry and qualified workforce, as well as its experience in the international market, makes significant efforts to improve its relations with African countries. In this direction, it is very important to increase mutual trade volume with African partners in the continent and to develop these connections through new partnerships. The number of Turkey’s embassies in Africa was 12 in the early 2000s, this number increased to 42 by 2020. There are daily flights from Turkey to almost all African countries.
Drawing attention to Turkey’s opening to Africa in parallel with the general development process, the experts in the continent give place to the expressions of a new partner and a global player. In this context, Turkey is shown among the four rising partners of Africa, along with countries such as China, India and Brazil. When we look at the commercial data, Turkey’s trade with the African continent was around US$4.3 Billion in the early 2000s, and it increased to about US$15 Billion in 2020. – Undoubtedly, Turkey’s economic relations with African countries will increasingly continue in the upcoming period.
When we look at the commercial relations between Turkey and Uganda, we see that there has been an increasing business volume over the years. We know that these commercial developments are especially in the food products, construction, machinery and textile fields. On the basis of figures, there has been a significant growth in the commercial volume between Turkey and Uganda in the last 5 years. The business volume, which was approximately US$22 Million in 2015, reached US$54M in 2020. At the East African level, we see that Turkey’s pie is bigger. In 2020, a total of US$517 Million of products (food stuff, construction materials, textile, household appliances, industrial machines) were exported from Turkey to the countries of the East African Community. These countries are respectively;
Kenya – US$227 Million
Tanzania – US$200 Million
Powering the Nation: Beyond Blame, Toward ESG-Driven Electricity Governance in UgandaUganda – US$54 Million
Rwanda – US$27 Million
South Sudan – US$6 Million
Burundi – US$3 Million
Although this US$517 Million seems to be a low figure among Turkey’s total exports of US$170 Billion in 2020, it gained a very positive momentum compared to previous years and entered into a significant upward trend. With both its cultural and historical partnerships, Turkey has always been the European neighbour and industrial solution partner of East African countries. Exporting the best quality products to the world market at reasonable prices, Turkey is an important manufacturer for Uganda and East African countries.
As an African expert, I believe that the commercial, economic, touristic and cultural activities between Turkey and Uganda will increase in the upcoming years.
Cem Perdar is a Master’s graduate of Rome Business School and Export Sales Manager/Africa at Pakmaya, Pak Holding.