Exports of medium-high and high-tech manufacturing industry products from Türkiye approached close to the $100 billion figure in 2023, according to the data compiled by Anadolu Agency (AA) from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Monday.
The exports were realized at $97.2 billion, the data showed, and the share of medium-high and high-tech manufacturing industry products in the nation's overall exports stood out at the forefront.
Türkiye's exports reached a third straight annual peak to a total of $255.8 billion in 2023, a 0.6% year-over-year increase from $254 billion in 2022.
The manufacturing industry exported $5.9 billion of high-tech products in 2019, $5.4 billion in 2020, $6.4 billion in 2021, $7.4 billion in 2022, and $9.1 billion in 2023.
Exports of medium-high technology products were $62.2 billion in 2019, though the figure declined to $57.3 billion in 2020 during the pandemic, then went up again to $71.9 billion in 2021. They picked up further to $81.2 billion in 2022, and $88.9 billion in 2023.
Accordingly, the total of medium-high and high-tech products stood at $68.2 billion in 2019, $68.2 billion in 2020 and $77.4 billion a year after.
In 2022, this figure picked up to $88.6 billion and reached $97.2 billion in 2023.
The share of medium-high and high-tech products in total manufacturing industry products was calculated at 39.9% in 2019, 39.3% in 2020, 36.4% in 2021, 36.9% in 2022, and 40.3% in 2023, up 3.4 points.
Ankara stands out in manufacturing
Despite the recent increase, the share of high-tech products in manufacturing exports remained below the world average in Türkiye, Seyit Ardıç, chairperson of the Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO), told AA, evaluating the data.
"Defense and aerospace products make more than half of the high-tech exports," as they made "great strides in years past," Ardıç said.
He mentioned that the capital Ankara stands out in high-tech product manufacturing compared to other cities thanks to its strategic location in the country.
"Ankara stands out with its strength in sectors such as machinery, medicine, transportation, electrical and the defense industry. Our capital city has great potential in high-tech manufacturing, and the added value of production has been rising rapidly in recent years; however, expanding the use of high technology to include our traditional sectors, increasing our product diversity and customer differentiation in foreign markets will take our exports to the next level."