Bilateral trade between Syria and Turkey expanded 43 percent last year to reach a total of USD 2.5 billion, as Turkey’s presence across various sectors of the Syrian economy is increasing at a fast pace.
According to statistics published by the Turkish statistical office, Turkstat, Turkish exports to Syria increased 30 percent last year to USD 1.8 billion, while Syrian exports doubled to USD 662 million to return to their 2008 level. Syria’s trade deficit with its northern neighbour now stands at USD 1.18 billion.
Turkey’s total foreign trade increased 24 percent in 2010 to reach USD 300 billion - including USD 185 billion in imports and USD 113 billion in exports - from a total of USD 242 billion in 2009. Figures for Syria’s total 2010 foreign trade are not yet available, the 2009 figures having just been released.
Turkstat does not provide a breakdown of the bilateral trade figures and it is therefore difficult to assess what products represented the largest share in the flow, although Syrian exports are usually mainly made of crude oil and other oil related products, while Turkey exports mainly manufactured products.
The release of this data comes as Turkish companies are showing an increasing interest in investing in Syria. Indeed, while Turkish investments remained limited until recently, a number of deals have been announced in the last few weeks.
Guris, a building materials company, launched, two weeks ago, the last phase of the construction works on a EUR 285 million cement factory near Raqqa, in northeast Syria.
Meanwhile, both Cham Holding and Souria Holding, Syria’s two largest private sector holding companies, announced that Turkish partners were entering the capital of two of their subsidiaries for projects based in Aleppo.
Also, Richmond International, a luxury hotels chain, announced that it was eyeing the Syrian market and was close to finalizing a deal for its first property in the country. Dedeman Hotels, another Turkish chain, already manages three properties across the country, all owned by the Syrian state, and has signed a deal for a fourth property in Lattakia.
Other recent deals announced recently include the building of a joint dam on the Orontes River on the border with the Sandjak of Alexandretta, a region disputed by the two countries and the construction of a new joint border post.
This outflow of Turkish interest is probably best represented in the 127 percent increase in the number of Turkish tourists to Syria last year. Some 865 thousand Turkish tourists visited Syria last year from 381 thousand a year earlier.
While many Syrians are wary of this regular and continuous increase in Turkey’s presence, it is difficult for the Government and the private sector to discard it at a time relatively few foreign companies are willing to take the Syrian risk. Although FDI is increasing, relatively little money is coming from outside the Gulf region.
Syria and Turkey have a complicated history with most of present-day Syria having been under the Ottoman Empire for more than four centuries.
