The Turkish president on Friday said that although the COVID-19 pandemic entails certain difficulties and problems, it also opens up new opportunities before the business world.

“Turkish firms stand out among their rivals with their quality products, competitive prices and reliability,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said when he received the executive board members of the Young Businessmen Confederation of Turkey in Istanbul.

He thanked all business people that put in effort for Turkey’s growth and strength.

Erdogan stressed that the importance of strong health infrastructure, research and development, as well as market and product variety were clearly observed during 2020 due to the pandemic.

The companies that focus merely on domestic market are affected negatively by the pandemic, Erdogan said, whereas those that value innovation, research and development, production and export pulled through the COVID-19 fallout with the least damage.

The number of companies established in Turkey last year topped 101,000 despite the pandemic, he also said.

The president added that the Free Trade Agreement inked between Turkey and the UK end-December has been the most significant trade agreement after the Customs Union.

“With this agreement, we ensured that our commercial relationship with the UK will expand and continue after the Brexit, too,” he said. “We are working on the updates on the Customs Union agreement with the EU.”

Erdogan remarked that the uncertainties regarding the future of the pandemic indicates that difficulties in the global economy will continue for a while./aa