Türkiye's bilateral trade volume with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has surged from $2.1 billion (TL 59.90 billion) in 2002 to $22.7 billion in the past 20 years, thus increasing nearly 11-fold, a senior official said Sunday.

Attending the GCC-Türkiye Economic Forum held in Istanbul, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said: "When we look at the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, our bilateral trade volume has increased from $2.1 billion to $22.7 billion in the last 20 years, from 2002 to 2022. There is an 11-fold increase in our trade."

"In this context, our exports to the GCC countries have soared from $1.2 billion to $9.5 billion," Bolat said, adding that the imports have reached $13.3 billion, up from below $1 billion two decades ago.

Ministers of the countries within the GCC, deputy ministers and numerous bureaucrats attended the opening ceremony of the event, where representatives of companies operating in agriculture, food, infrastructure, transportation, logistics, tourism, finance, investment, industry and energy sectors of participant countries were also present.

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council, is a regional, intergovernmental, political and economic union comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Elaborating on Türkiye's economic expansion in recent years, Bolat said the country's economy grew by 5.5% last year and 11.4% the year before.

"This year, there is a possibility of showing growth of 4% and above," he said.

"Our national income, which was $808 billion in 2021, $906 billion in 2022, is expected to exceed $1 trillion at the end of this year," he said adding that export has played a crucial role in this growth.

"Türkiye's goods exports increased by 7.5 times between 2002 and 2022, rising from $36 billion to $254 billion. This figure was the highest in the republic's history," he said, recalling that exports remained on the upward track, reaching a $210 billion figure in the first 10 months of this year, according to the official data.

Describing the Gulf region as "one of Türkiye's largest partners," Bolat further explained that mutual investments and trade between Türkiye and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are significantly increasing in specific areas such as energy, trade, business and investment.

"Today, Türkiye's trade volume with Arab countries has increased significantly. In 2022, our exports to Arab countries reached $46 billion, import $36 billion while the share of Arab countries in our total exports stood at around 18%, and their share in our imports was around 10%," the minister said.

Bolat also shared the figures of Türkiye's trade with the 57 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). "In 2002, Türkiye's total exports to the 57 countries of the OIC were only $4.7 billion. In 2022, this figure has reached $65 billion," he said.

"Hopefully, we will be able to announce much higher figures at the end of 2023."