Turkish contracting in the international market
During the periods in which investments slowed down in the public and private sectors, foreign contracting services gained importance. The shrinking of the economy in Turkey and the bottleneck in the construction sector resulting from it, has forced construction companies to concentrate more on business abroad. The opening of the Turkish contractors to foreign markets started at the beginning of the 1970s. The first country to which Turkish contractors exported their services was Libya, where they started their projects by importing the necessary technology from European countries.The Turkish Contractors AssociationTimeline
The works of Turkish contractors can be evaluated over three decades plus the period during 2000–2005. ;1972–1979 Most of the works undertaken during this period were in North Africa and especially in Libya (72.54%) and later on, in Saudi Arabia (15.44%), Iraq (7.25%), Kuwait (4.71%), Greece (0.06%) and Iran (0.01%). The most important field of activity in this period was housing (32.14%), followed by harbours (18.11%), road/ bridge/ tunnel works (11.67%) and urban infrastructure projects (8.19%). ;1980–1989 Most of the works undertaken during the second decade were realized in Libya again, despite a relative decrease in proportion (55.05%). Saudi Arabia (24.38%) and Iraq (11.16%) were ranked respectively second and third thus maintaining the position they had occupied during the first decade. The emergence of the former Soviet Union was a new development that occurred during this period (3.50%). Other countries in which Turkish contractors started working were Jordan, Yemen, Iran, the USA, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. During this period, housing activities (38.90%) and urban infrastructure projects (17.52%) increased and were followed by road/ bridge/ tunnel (6.69%) and agricultural projects (6.33%). ;1990–1999 In the third decade, the trend changed completely. While the share of the Russian Federation increased to (36.19%), Libya's share decreased drastically to (11.19%). Libya was followed by Pakistan (6.92%) and Turkmenistan (6.67%). Together, the works undertaken in the former Soviet Union countries amounted to 61%. The differentiation of the countries in which new projects were undertaken was a novel development characteristic of this decade. Pakistan (6.92%), Turkmenistan (6.67%), Kazakhstan (6.55%), Uzbekistan (4.29%), Bulgaria (2.79%), the USA (2.69%), Azerbaijan (2.30%) and Croatia (1.86%) emerged as new markets. Other important developments were the considerable decrease in the proportion of works in Saudi Arabia (3.44%) and the disappearance of Iraq from the scene. The "other" category comprised 33 countries with a proportion of 8%. Despite a decrease in the proportion of housing works (23.89%), it remained the first ranking activity. However, this did not mean a decrease in housing works in terms of value. The value of the housing projects undertaken during this period was also high. Housing was followed by road/ bridge/ tunnel works (12.84%), industrial facilities (9.65%) and commercial centers (8.13%). The highest proportion of the projects undertaken during this period was in the Russian Federation and the other former Soviet Union countries. ;2000–2007 The period after the year 2000 is a period where markets showed even more differentiation and where there was specialization in certain types of projects. The number of countries, in which Turkish contractors worked, increased considerably and that caused the percentage of work in each country to decrease relatively. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation maintained the first rank (14.66%) and was followed by Romania (11.46%) and Kazakhstan (9.55%). The interesting developments in this period are, apart from Romania, the emergence of the United Arab Emirates (7.75%), Afghanistan (5.34%), Ireland (4.66%), Qatar (3.33%), Algeria and Morocco as new markets. After the interventions that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq, the rebuilding activities in these countries were closely followed by TCA member companies, just as it was in the rest of the world. When the types of work undertaken during this period are considered, road/bridge/tunnel works occupy the first rank (24.47%), followed by industrial facilities (14.52%), airports (8.33%), social and cultural facilities (6.54%) and housing (6.08%). The total value of work undertaken amounted to 5.4 billion US Dollars in 2004,9.3 billion US Dollars in 2005, 15.9 billion US Dollars in 2006 and 19.5 billion US Dollars in 2007.See also
* Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline *References
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