The Future of Malaysia-Turkey Relations

Presentation of TAPiO Management Advisory to the Turkish Delegation

TAPiO Management Advisory (TAPiO) organized a Turkish Delegation in collaboration with Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) and the Embassy of Turkey in Malaysia on 14th January 2019 at MITEC. TAPiO and MITEC opened their hands to the members of the Malaysia-Turkey Business Council and the Commercial Attaché, Her Excellency Elif Haliloğlu Güngüneş. The purpose of this delegation was to brief the delegations on the attractive business opportunities if they use Malaysia as the gateway to ASEAN and Asia and other benefits they will gain from invest in Malaysia. Besides, a presentation was held to explain about TAPiO and the services they provide. Kudos to Mr Mehmet, one of our talented interns who act as a translator during the whole event.

Embassy of the Republic of Turkey to Malaysia

On the 23rd January, Embassy of the Republic of Turkey had a meeting with Technical University of Munich International GmbH (TUM), Asia Center of Excellence for Smart Technologies (ACES) and TAPiO Management Advisory. This meeting was held at the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Menara Tan & Tan where Her Excellency Ambassador Dr. Merve Kavakci, Her Excellency Elif Haliloğlu Güngüneş the Commercial Counsellor and Ms. Zeynep Havva Rafique Ali the Press Counsellor were present from the Turkish Embassy. On the other side, the representative from Technical University of Munich International GmbH (TUM) was Dipl.-Kfm. Daniel A. Gottschald the Managing Director of TUM and Mr. Tan Heng Siang, Manager of ACES, was the representative from ACES. Representatives from TAPiO were Mr. Bernhard Schutte, Chairman, and Nur Redzlan Nur Jazlan, Junior Associate. TUM is interested to work with Turkish start-ups in Malaysia and Germany. This is because Malaysia can assist Turkey to enter the ASEAN market whereas Germany can assist them to get into the European market. During the meeting, it was noted that Ambassador Dr. Merve is very interested in what Malaysia has to offer.

Trade with Turkey

Based on Investopedia, Turkey shipped US$168 billion worth of products around the globe in 2018. That figure represents roughly 1% of overall global exports estimated at $17.546 trillion one year earlier during 2017 (calculated as of February 6, 2019) which makes overall Turkey posted a -$55 billion deficit on all products for 2018. That amount is a -28.4% reduction from the -$76.8 billion in red ink one year earlier.

From a continental perspective, 57% of Turkish exports by value are delivered to European countries while 24.9% are sold to Asian importers.

Turkey ships another 8.4% worth of goods to Africa and 6.1% to North American customers. A much smaller percentage of Turkish exports arrived in Latin America (1.6%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean.

As a result, Turkey incurred the highest trade deficits with the following countries:

Country Specific trade deficit in 2018
Russia US$18.6 billion
China $17.8 billion
India $6.4 billion
South Korea $5.4 billion
Iran $4.5 billion
Germany $4.3 billion
United States $4.1 billion
Japan $3.6 billion
Brazil $2.8 billion
Malaysia $1.8 billion

These cash flow deficiencies clearly indicate Turkey’s competitive disadvantages with the above countries. However, this could be an opportunity for Turkey to   develop country-specific strategies to strengthen its overall position in international trade.