Virtual Trade Delegations and Virtual Fairs Set to Begin

To overcome the negative effects of the Covid-19 process, the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) is implementing numerous action plans. TİM is creating Virtual Trade Mission programs in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce. TİM will also provide opportunities for marketing of products and services through a virtual fair platform that it will develop. In the Virtual Trade Mission programs, exporter companies and foreign buyers in relevant countries are being brought together in an online environment to organize qualified bilateral business meetings (B2B).

The first of the Virtual Trade Mission programs will be held between 13-15 May with Uzbekistan in the sectors of agricultural food, farm machinery, cold storage and food packaging.

TİM Chairman İsmail Gülle stated that they are taking this step within the scope of 'Next generation trade diplomacy' activities to prevent exporters from being further negatively affected. Announcing that TİM and Exporter Associations plan to conduct 202 trade missions this year, Gülle said "In line with this target, we have started working rapidly to organize trade missions in a virtual environment with our trade advisors in intensive contact, without being deterred by the obstacles caused by the global virus outbreak, starting from Africa and the Middle East to a hinterland extending from Central Asia to the Far East. Based on our analyses, we contacted the Trade Advisors and Attachés of 28 countries with a maximum time difference of 3 hours among the 45 Target and Priority countries determined by our Ministry for 2020. We identified potential countries. South Korea was included in the list outside the time difference criterion due to its positive outlook with measures taken during the Covid-19 process and being a target market sectionally" Gülle explained. TİM Chairman İsmail Gülle provided information about the Virtual Trade Mission programs to be held this year. He said that following Uzbekistan, they will continue Virtual Trade Missions with Kenya on 27-29 May in the food and non-food fast-moving consumer goods sectors. Gülle stated that Virtual Trade Missions will continue with India on 15-19 June in the agriculture, food and non-food fast-moving consumer goods, farm machinery, cold storage and air conditioning sectors and with South Korea on 22-23 June in the plastic and metal kitchenware, glass and ceramic household goods, home/bathroom products and home textiles sectors. Gülle concluded his remarks by saying "We are continuing our planning work with Nigeria, Germany, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. There is intense demand from our exporters during this period. As TİM, we have made it our mission to carry out activities to increase our country's exports and to always provide a solution to our exporters. Our greatest wish is to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic on our country's exports and the market losses suffered by our exporting companies and to overcome this period" he continued.

Virtual Fairs to Begin in July

The exhibition industry, which generates an economic value of 325 billion dollars globally, is one of the sectors most negatively affected by the pandemic. Reminding that many organizations have been postponed or cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, Gülle made important statements: "Looking at the 2020 supported fairs listed in our Ministry of Commerce's lists, we see that it supports 151 national fairs for manufacturing sectors and 727 individual fairs. The number of fairs that could be held in the first three months of the year is only 214 out of a total of 878 fairs. Looking at service sectors, in 2020 there were 170 in education, 43 in information technology, 152 in health, 115 in film, 91 in logistics, 33 in publishing and 20 in management consulting, making a total of 1,019 individual and 7 national fair organizations, of which only 15% could be held. This situation deepens the crisis in the supply chain and prevents filling the gaps created in the chain with new partnerships. At this point, with the virtual fair platform we will develop as TİM, we aim to bring participants and visitors operating anywhere in the world together on a single platform, providing opportunities for marketing of products and services and developing new partnerships." Gülle said that this platform would both revitalize the fair sector and markets affected by Covid-19, and would create significant time and cost advantages. Gülle noted that the virtual fair platform will help reduce the negative effects of the coronavirus on our country's economy and will also accelerate the opening of new opportunity windows. TİM Chairman İsmail Gülle concluded his remarks by saying "We plan to implement virtual fairs, which we are working on at full speed to conduct in all sectors, around July"