The Overall Vıew Of The Relatıons Between Turkey And Afrıca

Transcription

1 1 The Overall Vıew Of The Relatıons Between Turkey And Afrıca Zuhal MANSFIELD Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) Chairperson of Turkish-Egyptian Business Council, Vice Coordinating Chairperson of Turkish- African Business Councils Translated by Cansu KARAGÖZ Africa, having been making considerable efforts in the recent period in order to manage overcoming the political, economic and social problems it encounters, is day by day increasing its strategic significance in the eyes of both developed and developing countries with the rich natural resources and the young population it has and is of great importance in terms of economic stability and development of the world. It is known that Africa has, over the last five-year period, reached a growth rate that can be considered as stable and increased the revenue it gains through foreign aid and investment. When said developments considered, the partial improvement of the continent is noted; yet this progress effects the reduction of poverty and integration with the world economy in a limited way. It is a generally accepted notion that, rather than receiving aid, Africa needs its investment and trade potentials to be enhanced. After all, it has been stated that if and when Africa increases its share of world trade by 1%, the whole continent will gain a profit worth about seven times more than the annu-al aid it receives. 1 On the other hand, countries of the Africa continent should carry out more active policies in favor of their industrial development and be supported in this area. The foremost issues to be handled are to manage carrying out dynamic investments, to increase the low volume of domestic trade, to strengthen private sector, to reduce the degree of human capital flight, and to build standardization and domestic technological capacities.

2 2 Türkiye-Afrika İlişkilerinin Gelişiminde Sivil Toplum ve Düşünce Kuruluşlarının Rolü It is beyond doubt that the success of Africa's industrialization policies is directly correlated with its ability to maintain economic cycle and increase product variety. However, it is clear that there exist several obstacles to do so. Especially the comparative advantages the continent holds are of smaller sig-nificance in global competition, which is why it is a necessity to increase product variety. In addition, while the planning of technology strategies is one of the most neglected matters during the development process, it has recently been among the topics which are considered to be of great importance. The African Union has also been more direct in emphasizing that determined steps concerning this issue will be taken. Moreover, it is also necessary in Africa to improve the infrastructure. As is known, infrastructure constitutes the basic ground for economic develop-ment, which brings into attention especially the matters of transport and energy. The high cost of transport is a serious issue, particularly for inland coun-tries. For instance, while the shipment of a vehicle from Japan to the Ivory Coast costs 1500 Dollars covering also the insurance fee, the cost of the same vehicle's being shipped from Ethiopia to the Cote d'ivory will reach up to some 5000 Dollars. 2 A big number of the seaports in Africa lack of proper equipment. Nonetheless, it can be stated that the Yamoussoukro Decision is a significant improvement considering the air transport liberalization of the continent. 3 As much as being somewhat rich in terms of oil, coal, hydroelectricity, natural gas and renewable energy resources, Africa is trying to cope with issues such as the remote locations of resources, the infrastructural inadequa-cy of the distribution network and unaffordable costs as well as the security problems. Regional Economic Communities of the continent share the big responsibility of resolving these issues. Another primary subject is the development of agriculture sector with the aim of maintaining economic growth and food security. Additionally, it is a need to extend throughout the continent the utilization of early warning systems which have recently been developed for food security. The Cairo and Lisbon Summits which were co-organized with the EU, the increasing traffic of American and European leaders visiting the continent, "Africa Forums" which have recently been and is yet to be held by states with rapidly developing economies such as China, India and Brasil are all clear indications of the interest that is taken on the continent. Turkey has also been giving special attention to its relations with Africa, which can be considered as an important sign of our multilateral foreign poli-cies. Turkey has been putting serious effort into improving its relations with the African states for the advanced industry and skilled labor as well as the expe-

3 The Overall View of the Relations Between Turkey and Africa 3 rience they have in the international market. When pursuing to achieve these goals, it is also crucial to increase our mutual share of trade with the partners we have on the continent and improve said connections with the new partners. Our relations with Africa have undergone a major transformation starting from the late 90's. "Opening to Africa Action Plan" which was accepted in 1998 has been primarily aiming to organize high-level visits of leaders and offi-cials from and to both parties, increase the level of connections with the African states in terms of international and regional organizations, provide humanitari-an aid, increase the number of Turkish diplomatic representation offices on the continent, sign agreements of economic, technical and scientific cooperation and trade as well as promoting closer relations with the African states. Along this path, "Strategy for Developing Economic and Trade Relations with African Nations" was put into effect in 2003; the year 2005 was announced to be the "Year of Africa" in Turkey and before it ended Turkey had begun attending the ordinary summits of the African Union as observer; and in January 2008 Turkey was declared by the African Union a "strategic partner". All these efforts and the membership to the African Development Bank constitute the basic elements of our relations. Turkey's industry and foreign trade infrastructures feature supplementary characteristics for African economies; and Africa is considered as one of the target markets by a great number of Turkish SMEs. Furthermore, the histori-cal and cultural bonds cannot go unnoticed during the process of improving our economic and commercial relations with Africa. Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit, which was held for the first time in August 2008 in Istanbul under the main theme of "cooperation for a common future in solidarity" and agreed upon to be held once in every five years, is a fine summary of the point the relations have reached. Also the Istanbul Declaration and Framework of Cooperation for Partnership which were adopt-ed at the end of the Summit will conduce to the management of the process in a more planned and organized fashion. Again within the scope of the Summit and with the support received from Turkey's Undersecretariat of the Prime Ministry for Foreign Trade, Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) and Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) has brought together the business world via the "Turkey-Africa Business Summit". TASAM African Institute has also realized a much needed civil society project by carrying out the CSOs Forum. In conclusion, we can agree on the notion that the cooperation fields accepted in all of the three platforms correspond to each other widely; after all, an effective foreign partnership is supposed to comprehend every single socio-economic actors.

4 4 Türkkye-Afrika İlişkilerinin Gelişimlinde Sivil Toplum ve Düşünce Kuruluşlarının Rolü When it comes to improving said commercial relations, it is also one of the most important subjects for Turkey to advance its competitiveness and increase the amount of investments in the region as well as providing African countries with technical assistance in their fields of experience Import Export Import Export Import Export Import Export 6,047,201,68 1 3,631,062,885 7,342,151,74 0 4,563,451,407 6,784,091,81 4 5,976,110,06 9 7,769,849,54 9 9,062,200,029 The last four years' numbers of import and export with the African nations are given in the table shown above. When the data from 2005 and 2008 are compared a serious increase can be observed, especially in Turkey's export to Africa. Table- 1: Our Import and Export with the African Nations (in US dollars) Table- 2: Our Trade Volume with the African Nations (in US dollars) As is seen in Table- 2 our volume of trade, having been declared to be 9.6 billion dollars in the year 2005, reached 11.9 billion dollars in 2006, 12.7 bil-lion dollars in 2007 and 16.8 billion dollars as a result of an approximate 32% rise in While the increase of our volume of trade with North African states was calculated as 45% during this process, the percentage was 25.8 with the Sub-Saharan states. Table-3: Countries to whom Turkey Exports the Most (in US dollars) Country Algeria 1,231,724,943 1,613, Egypt 902,702,916 1,426,059,912 S. African R. 653,785,223 1,238,631,579 Libya 643,149,901 1,074,359,579 Morocco 721,594, ,854,716

5 The Overall View of the Relations Between Turkey and Africa 5 Table-4: Countries from whom Turkey Imports the Most (in US dollars) Country Algeria 2,108,491,205 3,262,175,966 S. African R. 2,172,297,516 1,502,491,510 Egypt 679,932, ,506,777 Nigeria 493,966, ,915,596 Tunisia 229,788, ,146,061 Table-5: Turkey's Foremost Partners in Africa (in US dollars) Country Algeria 3,340,216,148 4,875,729,353 S. African R. 2,826,082,739 2,741,123,089 Egypt 1,582,635,415 2,368,566,689 Libya 1,042,870,161 1,410,684,822 Morocco 920,054,780 1,318,337,261 However our trade volume, which was announced as 8-9 billion dollars in June last year, has degraded to 7-8 billion dollars with an estimated 12% decrease the same month this year as a result of having been effected more this current year by the recession in the global economy. The recession in question has reached to be %25 with the Sub-Saharan states when the recession in our foreign trade with the North African states has been calculated as 4%. Despite the said recession rates, our volume of trade has increased by 47% with Egypt, with whom I hap-pen to be the Co-Director of Work Council related to DEIK, and by 42% with Libya. Additionally, our volume of trade can be considered promising for the upcoming period for having sustained a noteworthy increase rate with the region-al countries such as Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo, Liberia, Mozambique and Uganda even in the last period. On the other hand, if one studies the USA's trade of goods with Africa in the last year they can see its export was worth 28,392 billion dollars and its import 113,495 billion dollars. Yet the export value of the USA in the first seven months of the current year was 13,550 billion dollars and its import value is 30,737 billion dollars. 4

6 6 Türkkye-Afrika İlişkilerinin Gelişimlinde Sivil Toplum ve Düşünce Kuruluşlarının Rolü It goes without saying that in order for us to improve and advance our trade with Africa, who is of great significance for the common future and sta-bility of the world, our membership to the African Development Bank is cru-cial to us. The recent admission to the membership will make a positive con-tribution to our mutual interests and promote especially the Turkish construc-tion sector's entrepreneurship. Moreover, Turkish Embassies that have recent-ly been opened and will be opened shortly throughout the continent will cer-tainly support this process. It is a necessity to give priority to Africa in terms of development aids and the official amount of the development aid Turkey has provided the region with is still inadequate yet on the rise. If and when the amount of these aids increase in a stable manner in the upcoming period, it will contribute to the improvement of the life standards, the decreasing of poverty and the pursuing of a sustainable development in the region. The projects carried out by TİKA (Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency) in Africa are also essential to improve the economic and social infrastructure, build up cultural cooperation and communication and provide support for humanitarian aids. Let us remind you one more time that, consequent to said efforts Turkey was given the status of "observing state" by the African Union on April 12th, The medical support provided by the Turkish Red Crescent and the edu-cation support by Turkish Ministry of National Education are also necessary for strengthening the mutual bonds. Again it is a necessity to focus on the cul-tural relations, which means both Non-governmental organizations and the media will need to take serious responsibilities. Increasing the frequency of THY flights to the continent within the next period is another topic to affect our volume of trade in a good way. In order to reach our goals of development, security and human rights, the establishment of a close partnership between the business world and the society is one of the most attention demanding matters. In fact, the strength-ening of the bonds between said actors should be given priority to when improving the economic, political and socio-cultural relations between Turkey and Africa. It needs to be underlined that one should not lose hope as our volume of trade declines. Acting together with harmony and within the framework of mutual trust and understanding will also result in developing multilateral rela-tions between Turkey and Africa.

7 The Overall View of the Relations Between Turkey and Africa 7 In order for the determined and systematic policies that have been carried out within the strategic partnership framework between Turkey and Africa since the mid of 2000's to reach more effective results in the peoples' opinion, the bonds between the government agencies and the business world as well as the civil society will have to be advanced by meeting in shared platforms. Doing so will enable the Cooperation Summit and its side initiatives to reach their goal. Notes 1 Ahmet Mahir Yener, "The Trade Relations between Turkey and sub- Saharan Africa and the role of Development Aid", Assoc. Prof. Ahmet Kavas, Ufuk Tepebaş (Ed.), within sub- Saharan Africa ( ), TASAM Publications, 2007, s Economic Report on Africa 2007, Accelerating Africa's Development through Diversification, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, For further details about the Yamoussoukro Decision see: 4 For further details, see: