News item | 10-01-2025 | 19:04
Minister Klever (Foreign Trade and Development Aid) will visit Turkey from Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 January together with representatives of Dutch companies. The working visit to Istanbul is about annual economic talks with the Turkish government.
Minister Klever speaks with the Turkish Minister of Trade, Ömer Bolat, about the strong trade and investment relationship between the Netherlands and Turkey. Over the past five years, exports from the Netherlands to Turkey have doubled and imports have increased one and a half times. The Netherlands has also been the largest investor in the country for years. Conversely, the Netherlands is the largest recipient in the EU of Turkish investments. In addition to bilateral trade, Minister Klever discusses economic cooperation between the EU and Turkey and possible trade opportunities surrounding the energy transition and the digitalization of the manufacturing industry.
Minister Klever: “As Minister for Foreign Trade, I represent Dutch trade interests. A visit to Turkey fits in well with this. With my visit I want to emphasize the good economic ties and explore new opportunities for Dutch entrepreneurs. Turkey is an important trading country for the Netherlands, partly due to its strategic location between Europe and Asia. It is not without reason that more than three thousand Dutch companies are already active in Turkey.”
The minister also speaks with Dutch and Turkish companies about the opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs in Turkey. Ranked among the top twenty largest economies in the world, Turkey is popular with companies in various sectors, such as ports and logistics, real estate, construction and the aviation sector. In recent years, the Turkish government has been strongly committed to digitizing the industrial sector, something that fits in well with the expertise of Dutch companies in digital technologies. Dutch entrepreneurs in artificial intelligence, for example, can contribute to the digital transition of Turkish industry.
Minister Klever is accompanied by Ingrid Thijssen, chairman of VNO-NCW, about ten large Dutch companies and several medium-sized companies. Together they visit MEXT, a technology center that works on innovation and digitalization of production processes. The program also includes a visit to Eliar, a research and development center for automation systems in the textile, glass and ceramics sectors. Thanks to support from it Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), Eliar opened a new branch last year at Brainport Eindhoven.