Turkey: New Collaborations are on the way with Vietnam, after RCEP

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Natural Stone Industry Grows In The Far East Market – Turkish Natural Stone Exporters will Cooperate with Vietnam

Aegean Minerals and Natural Stones Exporters Association (EMIB), have around 1.300 exporter member companies located mainly at Aegean region of Turkey. It’s members export 920 million USD annually. Natural Stones, metallic minerals, industrial minerals, ferroalloys and other mining products are among the principle areas of EMIB. EMIB organizes trade fairs, trade mission programmes, education programmes for it’s member companies.

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During the pandemic, conventional fairs and trade mission programmes was replaced by digital organizations. EMIB is also adopting it’s organizations to new normal and started organizing digital activities.

As import figures of China started to decline in 2020 EMIB started to look for alternative markets in the Far Eastern markets. EMIB launched a three-day Digital Natural Stone Trade Delegation to the ASEAN country Vietnam, which is included in the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), the largest free trade agreement in history.

In the first day of Vietnam Digital Natural Stone Industry Trade Delegation a digital opening ceremony was held with the participation of Commerce Deputy Minister Riza Tuna Turagay, Turkey Exporters Assembly (TIM) Chairman Ismail Gulle, Aegean Exporters’ Associations (EIB) Coordinator Chairman Jak Eskinazi, Hanoi Commercial Counselor of Turkish Republic  Burak Cihan Ürkmez and Mevlut Kaya, chairman of EMIB. 

EMIB decided to organize a digital trade mission programme to Vietnam after a detailed search about the Vietnam market:

-Turkey and Vietnam has diplomatic relations for 50 years. The trade volume increased to 3 billion dollars in recent years, only the last year it decreased to 1.8 billion dollars.

-Vietnam has 340 billion usd ,gross domestic production volume

-Vietnam has expanded its trade network with the arrival of investors, leaving  fleeing from China during the trade wars. Also a free trade agreement (FTA) with European Union (EU) has concluded. Also the world’s largest free trade agreement was signed with RCEP.

– In the country with a population of 100 million, the total number of  Covid 19 patients  since the beginning of the year is 1,300. During the epidemic, the country received a significant amount of foreign capital investment, especially with the European Union member countries turning to alternative producers to China.

The Asian Region Is Not Only A Producer But A Serious Consumer

In order to increase the share of Turkey in Vietnam’s import of 271 billion dollars trade mission programme has been organized. Currently Turkey ranked 31.  in Vietnam’s imports. Vietnam is a prominent market with its population approaching to 100 million.

Vietnam Natural Stone Market is Projected To Grow Close To 10 Percent

In the January-October period, Turkey exported 1 billion 394 million dollars of natural stone to 185 countries. Turkey’s natural stone export to Vietnam is 2 million 447 thousand dollars. Vietnam’s natural stone imports has increased from 127 million dolars to 175 millon dolars between 2017-2019. Vietnamese natural stone market is expected to grow by %10 in coming years.

Evaluation of Trade Mission Programme

During the trade mission programme 17 Turkish natural stone companies has made 191 B2B meetings with Vietnamese natural stone importers. After the event Mevlut Kaya chairman of EMIB said: “It was a really succesfull trade mission programme and all companies made fruitful B2B meetings. We hope we can compensate the decrease in our exports due to COVID-19 with Vietnam market.”

Participant companies displayed their products with the help of augmented reality

Mevlut Kaya chairman of EMIB said: “We used the augmented reality to display our products during the B2B meetings. Natural stone is a product that should be examined in details. With the help of AR technology we shared the details of our Stones with the Vietnamese companies”