BY BESTENIGAR KARA
Turkiye should promote itself further to attract more foreign investments, according to Dr. Tih-Ju Chu, Deputy Mayor of the New Taipei City Government in Taiwan. “Turkiye should promote how good it is, how its potential is, what it exactly needs, and why foreign investors should invest in the country,” Ti-Chih told in an exclusive interview with TR MONITOR on the sidelines of the ‘Taiwan 2024 Istanbul Trade Meeting.
The Taiwan 2024 Istanbul Trade Meeting, hosted by the New Taipei City Government on July 16, gathered the Turkish business world with a trade mission led by Chu, consisting of 20 Taiwanese companies from different sectors, such as information and communication technologies (ICT), electronics, mechanics, healthcare services industries in the New Taipei City, which is home to over 300,000 production plants and firms and 2.07 million workers with over 60% completing higher education. It’s also the biggest industrial city in Taiwan. “New companies visited Turkiye. Promotion, visits, and face-to-face meetings are important for collaborations,” Chu said, adding that they also met the economic development agencies and the Investment Office of the Presidency to learn more about the packages and Turkiye’s expectations and try to find a common interest.
The bilateral trade volume between Turkiye and Taiwan totaled USD 2.34bn in 2023, USD 2.14bn of which consisted of Turkiye’s imports from Taiwan, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). “The two countries have big economies, but the bilateral trade volume is low, and they are 8,000 kilometers away. Especially events like the Taiwan 2024 Istanbul Trade Meeting are a good opportunity for mutual understanding regarding needs,” Chu highlighted.
The trade volume between the two countries dropped by 33.11% from USD 1.07bn to USD 716.96m in January-May, year-over-year. Turkiye’s imports to Taiwan decreased by 33.42% from USD 981.5m to USD 653.39m, and exports declined by 29% from USD 90.45m to USD 63.56m in the same period. The decrease stemmed from the difficulties in transporting goods caused by regional conflicts such as the Red Sea crisis, the Russia-Ukraine war, and international sanctions on Russia. Turkiye is among the top three destinations in Taiwan for computer numerical control (CNC) machinery exports, which also fell significantly. “Due to the sanctions, we couldn’t export our CNC machinery to Turkiye, as Turkish buyers resell them to Russia. This development caused our trade volume to drop,” Chu noted. Accordingly, Taiwan aims to resume the previous trade volume figures and then hike them further. “We also tried to explore new opportunities at the Taiwan 2024 Istanbul Trade Meeting to boost our bilateral trade volume,” Chu said. “We hope that Turkiye can become a production hub for Taiwan. But we don’t know much about the market. Hopefully, the Turkish authority and business world will promote themselves more in Taiwan to attract more Taiwanese investments.”
INVESTMENTS FLOW TO EUROPE THROUGH TURKIYE
Electric vehicles, the energy-saving supply industry, and smart cities are among the sectors that can hike bilateral trade volume and investment figures between Turkiye and Taiwan. “We have machinery, auto parts, smart technologies, CNC machinery, and artificial intelligence (AI) companies in the New Taipei City. We can also partner with Turkiye in these sectors,” Chu noted.
Taiwan has many investments coming over; however, most of them flow into East Europe or Southern Europe through Turkiye as Taiwanese investors don’t know the Turkish market well, according to Chu. “They know that Turkiye is a big market with a strategic geographic location. But the question we need to ask is, why Turkiye? Because Taiwanese investors don’t know,” he added. Within this frame, the Taiwan 2024 Istanbul Trade Meeting paved the way for the trade mission from Taiwan to understand the Turkish market and find partners to construct win-win opportunities.
On the other hand, the supply chain includes many items. Chu emphasized that, especially in New Taipei City, there is a complete supply chain biosystem from the upstream to the downstream. “We have numerous industries, from mechanics to electronics, AI to semiconductors. That’s why we can work as a team when we expand into other countries. Investment cannot be made in a single item. It requires an entire supply chain coming together for sustainability, which is our target.”
Touching on Turkiye’s interest in Taiwan, Chu stated that many Turkish companies with all kinds of systems and components related to computers highly attend the global ICT and Internet of Things (IoT) exhibition COMPUTEX TAIPEI. The latest event was held on June 4-7. “The event offers many business opportunities. Our businesspeople also wanted to introduce electric motorbikes. It has an upward trend in Turkiye as well. From this perspective, we have a famous brand, Gogoro, which developed a battery-swapping refueling platform for urban electric two-wheel scooters, mopeds, and motorcycles.”
Another area of investment possibility is drones, according to Chu. Taiwan has recently purchased drones from a company in Turkiye. Moreover, the firm plans to set up an assembly line in Taiwan to utilize the country as the hub to sell its products to Southeast Asian countries.
Chu emphasized Turkiye’s success in major appliance manufacturing. “Arcelik is a strong trade partner of Taiwan in even semiconductor products. The company set up an R&D center in Taiwan.” Turkiye’s white goods sector posts a current account surplus. Its major appliances production hit 32.36 million units last year, according to the White Goods Manufacturers’ Association (TURKBESD). The country’s white goods exports totaled 23.19 million units, and domestic sales reached 9.53 million units in 2023.
HOTEL BUSINESS INVESTMENT IS ON THE CARPET
Turkiye is an attractive country for foreign visitors and showed the best tourism performance in 2023 when it welcomed 57 million visitors and hit a tourism revenue of USD 54bn. Istanbul, meanwhile, topped for the number of international arrivals in 2023 with 26% growth year-over-year, according to the Top 100 City Destinations Index 2023, prepared by the UK-based market research company Euromonitor International to detail the top 10 cities around the world for international arrivals. Antalya, meanwhile, managed to welcome 16.5 million visitors and ranked as the fourth most-visited city in the world.
On the other hand, the number of Taiwanese tourists visiting Turkiye hovers around 100,000-140,000 annually. The national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) has weekly direct flights to Taiwan. “Our people like to visit Turkiye. Considering the high number of Taiwanese tourists visiting the country, THY should upgrade the number of weekly flights to 10,” said Chu. To him, Taiwanese investors are interested in investing in the hotel business in Turkiye. “They consider it. That’s why we hope more promotion work regarding investment conditions from the Turkiye side,” Chu added.

The Taiwan 2024 Istanbul Trade Meeting, hosted by the New Taipei City Government on July 16, gathered the Turkish business world with a trade mission led by Dr. Tih-Ju Chu, Deputy Mayor of the New Taipei City Government, consisting of 20 Taiwanese companies from different sectors in the New Taipei City.
The Istanbul Metro is similar to the New Taipei Metro
Dr. Tih-Ju Chu, Deputy Mayor of the New Taipei City Government, visited Istanbul for the first time on the occasion of the Taiwan 2024 Istanbul Trade Meeting. To him, the Istanbul Metro infrastructure is similar to the New Taipei Metro infrastructure. “We have many metro works in New Taipei City, just like Istanbul. However, Istanbul is a more historical city. That’s why it has a more developed metro network,” said Chu. “We have completed ten lines. We are currently setting up three rings and six lines. Both cities have the same purpose- to enable urban transport to people for easier business and social lives,” Chu noted. To him, the common asset between Taiwan and Turkiye is hospitality. “Both Turkish and Taiwanese people like to welcome guests and make friends, and they are good to foreigners. The two nations are hardworking, especially in the manufacturing industry, which forms the backbone of exports.”
Regional developments affect the Turkish economy
Turkiye and Taiwan’s populations are 85.37 million and 23.9 million, respectively. “To manage the Turkish economy isn’t that easy due to its high population, but we can control our economy more easily as our population is smaller than in Turkiye,” said Dr. Tih-Ju Chu, Deputy Mayor of the New Taipei City Government. To him, the stability of the economic policies is one of the factors behind the success of the Taiwanese economy. “Economic policies should be consistent to have a clear target to achieve. Sometimes, it cannot be consistent and stable in Turkiye due to many developments in its neighboring regions. So we can tell that it isn’t easy to manage it.”