In order not to halt trade diplomacy during the pandemic period, Turkey’s Trade Ministry organized a total of 100 virtual meetings with trade delegations beginning from May of last year.

Some 1,801 producer and exporter companies met with 4,279 foreign buyers through 14,943 business-to-business (B2B) virtual meetings, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency (AA).

Virtual delegations promote Turkish companies and products in foreign markets when physical events are not possible due to the pandemic measures, such as lockdowns and travel bans.

The country has hosted 21 general and 79 sectoral virtual trade delegation meetings with Ghana, Qatar, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Romania, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam since May 2020.

The Trade Ministry is currently hosting a virtual delegation meeting with Vietnam that began Tuesday and is to be concluded Friday.