Turkey, Sudan set $2B trade target

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey and Sudan on Friday set a target of $2 billion trade in the next five years, said Turkey’s vice president.

“Our trade with Sudan reached $480 million in 2020,” Fuat Oktay said during a Turkey-Sudan round-table meeting in the capital Ankara.

Mining is an important area in Turkey’s commercial cooperation with Sudan, he added.

“I believe that with the sincere support of the Sudanese side, the problems in the mining fields allocated to Turkish companies will be resolved. Our cooperation established on a win-win basis in the mining sector will continue efficiently,” he added.

Oktay said Turkish investment in Sudan reached $314 million, adding a total of 90 projects, including 20 in the past two years, were undertaken by Turkish contracting companies in Sudan. The opening of a Ziraat Participation Bank branch in the capital Khartoum is an example of the strengthening economic relations between the two countries, he maintained.

In Sudan, 100,000 hectares of agricultural land has been allocated to Turkey for processing in the first place, he underlined.

“It was agreed to increase this area in the future,” he noted, adding agricultural cooperation under the General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises (TIGEM) will provide an important investment opportunity for Turkish businesspeople in Sudan.

“In addition, we wish to continue our cooperation in other new projects, especially the Khartoum International Airport project, in the future,” he said.

On Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the chairman of Sudan’s Sovereign Council.

On the sidelines of the meeting, several agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed, mainly in the fields of energy, defense, finance, and media.