Türkiye, Serbia will strive to enhance business cooperation: Erdoğan

Türkiye and Serbia will work harder to make sure cooperation between the two countries' business communities reaches its full potential, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday.

"We have significant potential in health, energy, information and communication technology. We should reap more benefit from these areas. It will be in the interest of both countries to take important steps together, especially in the defense industry," Erdoğan told a news conference alongside his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic at a Türkiye-Serbia Business Forum in the capital Belgrade.

Erdoğan, before concluding his one-day visit to Serbia, said he believes "it is very important that we increase our dialogue, particularly in the field of the defense industry."

He also expressed Türkiye's readiness to work with Serbia in projects as part of the EU Green Deal and Digital Europe.

Noting that about 850 companies with Turkish capital are in Serbia, Erdoğan stated: "The investments of Turkish companies in Serbia, which create jobs, are growing every day. Over the last 12 years, the added value generated by these companies has risen from $1 million to $405 million."

Erdoğan said Turkish companies also employ about 9,600 people in Serbia, while contractors have achieved a business volume of more than $1 billion with 95 projects.

On the bilateral trade volume, Erdoğan underlined that the two countries have made notable progress in a short period of time, adding that the trade volume between Türkiye and Serbia "broke a record for two years in a row and topped $2 billion."

Stressing that reaching the 2023 total in the first nine months of 2024 is a sign of strengthening momentum, Erdoğan highlighted that the main goal is to reach a $5 billion trade volume.

The door is "wide open" for Serbian entrepreneurs who are interested in investing in Türkiye, he said.

- Tourism

Saying another sign of the high level of relations between the two countries is their close cooperation in the field of tourism, Erdoğan added: "The development of the tourism sector between our countries contributes significantly both to our economies and the ties between our peoples.

"I hope that by the end of this year, the number of tourists coming from Serbia to Türkiye will break the record set in 2022, which was 360,000. We're also pleased that Turkish citizens rank first among tourists visiting Serbia. We naturally expect a significant increase in these numbers following the ratification of a protocol allowing travel with national ID cards."

For his part, Vucic said that Serbia's relations with Türkiye "go far beyond economic cooperation," as ties with Türkiye signify "peace and stability."

Vucic added that Turkish companies' investments in Serbia are important.