'Turkey important actor of global value chains'

Global value chains have transformed global trade and world economy, and Turkey is an important actor of them, the World Bank Group (WBG) country director for Turkey said on Wednesday.

"We have seen that 50% of global trades today are driven by global value chains," Auguste Tano Kouame told the Conference on Trade and Global Value Chains, organized by the WBG in Istanbul.

He stressed that value chains are key for making international trade and help exporters connect to other players globally.

"A global value chain breaks up the production process across countries. Firms specialize in a specific task and do not produce the whole product," a WBG report, released during the conference, said.

"Global value chains have also been an important elevator for developing countries wanting to reach the highest level of income," Kouame said.

He said several countries became exporters of light manufacturing through global value chains and some of them achieved advanced manufacturing.

"And Turkey is in that group today. There is a final level, which is the innovation-based exports," he stressed.

A few countries have succeeded in making innovation-based exports and Turkey is currently in that category.

Turkey has had a long involvement in global value chains, he said, adding: "Turkey can go further because we know global value chains have been very beneficial in Turkish firms."

Kouame also expressed that through global value chains, countries managed to reduce poverty and create stable economies.