Dear Members,
In the 100th year of our Republic, 2023 has gone down in history as a year in which Turkey managed to maintain and even enhance its economic resilience and export capacity despite global economic challenges. This year, despite the major earthquake disasters experienced in our country, we, as the Electrical and Electronics Exporters' Association, overcame difficulties with unity and solidarity, continuing and even increasing our exports. During the recovery process that followed the earthquakes, we stood in solidarity with our members, supporting our exporters.
Throughout the year, the electrical and electronics sector achieved an export volume of 16.5 billion USD, accounting for 6.3% of Turkey's total exports and ranking among the top four industrial sectors. In 2023, among the sub-sectors we represent, our highest export was in the "Electricity, Power Generation, and Distribution Equipment" product group with 5.38 billion USD. This was followed by exports in the White Goods product group at 4.19 billion USD, the Electronics product group at 3.85 billion USD, and the Cable product group at 3.07 billion USD.
With the trade delegation programs and cluster activities we conducted throughout the year, we provided our exporters with opportunities to access new markets. In 2023, we completed sectoral trade delegation programs targeting Saudi Arabia, Romania, Nigeria, Hungary, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Vietnam, and Cambodia. These events held in various countries marked significant steps toward enhancing our sector’s influence in global trade.
Last year, while the average unit price per kilogram for Turkey’s overall industrial sector was 1.9 USD, the average for our Electrical and Electronics Sector was 6.81 USD. Additionally, within the Electronics category, the unit price for high-tech TV Receivers (LCD) was at the level of 19.9 USD. In a period when recessions are anticipated in our export markets and a contraction in global trade is being experienced, increasing the share of high-tech products in our exports should be our primary goal.
In this context, to contribute to the realization of high-value-added ideas and to increase the share of high-tech products in our exports, we organized the 12th edition of our TET Project Market event in 2023. Serving as a platform on the path to commercialization, the event brought together 45 project owners with a panel of 54 expert jurors composed of professionals from the business world, investors, and representatives of incubation centers, providing an extensive network for project owners. In our competition, held in the categories of Environment and Energy, Health, and Other Applications, we distributed a total of 360,000 TL in prizes to those who placed and to honorable mention recipients with outstanding projects.
As part of the "Inosuit – Innovation-Focused Mentorship Program," which was initiated by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) in 2017, we continued to provide support this year to enhance innovation management capabilities and strengthen the innovation management infrastructure in our member companies. We completed contracts with a total of 6 companies during the September and March 2023 periods.
To ensure the sustainable growth of the Electrical and Electronics sector and strengthen its position in global markets, we also took significant steps in the areas of green transformation and sustainability in 2023. Our efforts to adapt to international developments such as the Green Deal and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism have contributed to the sustainability and competitiveness of our sector.
As part of our state aid efforts, led by the Ministry of Trade, which are critical for strengthening our companies' presence in global markets and creating new business opportunities, we carried out important work to increase the international competitiveness of our export companies, facilitate their access to new markets, and support various areas such as branding, overseas market research, e-export, and overseas company/brand acquisitions. In this process, we closed the commitment accounts for 1,568 inward and outward processing permits applied for by our member companies. To facilitate the entry of our exporters into international markets, we enabled 334 of our members to obtain green passports in 2023.
In 2024, I look forward to seeing you, our valued members, actively involved in all of our activities in order to diversify our export markets and open new opportunities for our sector. In the coming period, we will continue to work with all our strength, signing larger projects and striving to take our electrical and electronics sector further. On behalf of myself and the Board of Directors, I would like to thank all of our exporting companies, industry stakeholders, and employees, wishing you a year full of success.
I would also like to thank all my colleagues who contributed.
