Turkey and Russia set up scheme to compete with Chinese imports
Russian and Turkish small- and medium-size enterprises will cooperate in the production and exports of textiles, leather products and goods for the automotive industry in an attempt to gain a competitive edge over China and its cheap imports. Officials from the two countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip, have met on several occasions to put the framework in place.
Turkish firms will benefit from the technological capacity of Russian enterprises and corporate production will be resumed in the three industry areas. Russia is to provide the facility and area requirements whilst Turkey will undertake the technological renewal and labour training.
Currently 9,000 out of 40,000 Turkish firms are being matched with Russian ones to resume the cooperation. Consultancy and organisation expenditures will be shared between the two countries and Turkey will provide support to firms responsible for promotion and marketing of commodities it produces in Russia. 50 firms are said to have benefited from the scheme so far.
Turkish investments in Russia are already considerable but the crisis of 1998 destroyed many small-size enterprises. Recent years have, however, revived some of the business, including Turkish ones. Exports of goods produced as part of the new scheme are expected to follow the successful example of countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
