Erdoğan to discuss economy, investments during Saudi Arabia visit

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be visiting Saudi Arabia on Tuesday with a delegation of businesspeople to discuss boosting the trade volume, promoting mutual investments, and further solidifying private sector cooperation, a sector representative told Anadolu.

Hasim Sungu, chair of the Türkiye-Saudi Arabia Business Council at the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), stated that some important meetings will be held in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as the two countries achieve closer ties in economic, political, and related areas.

"Erdoğan's visit to Saudi Arabia represents the will of the two countries to elevate their relations, especially in economy and investments, as well as further advancing private sector cooperation," he said.

Sungu noted that Saudi Arabia's future roadmap, called the Vision 2030 program, is largely compatible with Türkiye's capacities in industry, production, engineering, and technology, saying that the visit will offer significant advantages to the Turkish business community in strengthening relations and paving the way for new investment projects.

He mentioned that the Türkiye-Saudi Arabia trade volume recently exceeded $8 billion, but he noted that the figure should be around $30 billion in the long term, given the sizes of the economies.

"The way to achieve such goals is to transcend the traditional understanding of trade and boost investments, support domestic production, and conduct project-based cooperation. Strengthening direct contacts between the business communities of the two countries is key in this process," he said.

Sungu noted that energy, infrastructure, construction, industry, defense, healthcare, tourism, and digital transformation are some of the particular areas for cooperation and strong investment opportunities between the two countries.

He mentioned that Saudi Arabia's massive projects, like the global cities Neom and Qiddiya, the Red Sea Destination, and the AlUla Project, represent significant potential for Turkish firms.

"These projects create a foundation for reliable partnerships for Türkiye's strong engineering, manufacturing, and technology infrastructure, and we think that the coming period will bring with it an increase in mutual investments and more robust long-term strategic partnerships, and thus, the economic relations between the two countries will be more balanced and sustainable," he added.