Within the scope of Turkey's Africa Initiative, the country's trade volume with the continental countries increased by six-fold in the last 15 years, reaching $17.5 billion.
Turkey's 15-year Africa Initiative Policy has increased economic cooperation, while also bringing political relations to the next level.
The experience of Turkish businesspeople has been transferred to the region and it has contributed to the development of African countries.
Economic relations have been diversified with a "win-win" approach.
In this period, Turkey signed 45 commercial and economic cooperation agreements with the African countries, increasing the number of agreements for the reciprocal protection of investments from six to 26.
While Turkish direct investments in Africa were $100 million in 2003, they reached $6.5 billion in 2017.
Turkish entrepreneurs provided employment to 78,000 people throughout the continent and the volume of the projects carried out by the Turkish contracting companies exceeded $55 billion.
The number of continental embassies rose from 12 in 2003 to 41 in 2017, when the African Expansion Policy was initiated.
Turkish Airlines' (THY) flight traffic reached 52 destinations in 33 countries on the continent.
While political relations have been raised to a higher level, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has paid more than 30 visits to 28 African countries as both prime minister and president in the last 10 years.
Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) established business councils with 42 African countries. Accompanying President Erdoğan's visits to 15 countries in the last two years with business delegations, DEİK has significantly contributed to the development of bilateral relations with African countries.Turkish businesspeople underlined that Eximbank's increased loans to Africa will improve the work efficiency of Turkish banks opening branches in countries where projects are intensive. They also emphasized the importance of the projects undertaken by Turkish entrepreneurs in the continent in terms of establishing mutual trust.
Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit
Turkey will continue to take steps to bring its relations with African countries to even greater heights. In this context, the Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit will be held next year.
The heads of state and presidents are expected to attend the summit planned in Turkey, while the meeting is envisaged to contribute to the emergence of the continent's economic potential.
