'Turkey, India trade grows steadily'

Trade volume between Turkey and India has posted a steady growth for the last two years, a business council head has said.

"Surpassing $8 billion trade volume, of which $7 billion are imports and $1.2 billion exports, we achieved our target last year," Tevfik Donmez, head of the Turkey-India Business Council of Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

The two countries set a bilateral trade volume target of $10 billion for 2020, and $25 billion for 2023, he said.

"Despite a 20-25% decrease in foreign trade in the first and second quarter of 2020, we believe we will catch up by the end of the year."

As cultural and economic paradigm is changing around the world, Donmez said, political, economic and cultural ties between Turkey and India have gained more importance.

He pointed out that India has an upward trend in ease of doing business due to simplification of laws and regulations, and a more transparent fiscal policy.

Noting that India has various opportunities for Turkish investors, Donmez said: "India, where a number of pharmaceutical raw materials are produced, has significant mutual potential for Turkey, which is a producer of high value-added products such as medical devices and test kits."

Touching upon India's wedding industry, Donmez said Turkey hosted 25 Indian weddings, surpassing $100 million last year.

"Despite a fall this year, we have projected to reach new records in Indian wedding tourism industry in Turkey in 2021," he said.