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Türkiye's gross domestic product is projected to reach $1.6 trillion in 2026, Trade Minister Omer Bolat announced Thursday, a figure he said represents a sixfold increase since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took office in 2002.
Speaking at the Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Georgia Business Forum in Tsinandali, Georgia, Bolat said GDP per capita is also expected to climb to $18,000 this year, roughly five and a half times the level recorded more than two decades ago. The growth, he said, positions Türkiye as the fifth-largest economy in Europe.
Bolat framed the forum as a launchpad for expanded cooperation among the three neighboring countries, describing the gathering as the "Davos of Caucasus" and emphasizing its potential to strengthen relations at both the governmental and private-sector levels.
The Caucasus, he said, is a region "where different cultures converge" and an "important transition point between east and west as well as north and south." He pointed to the geostrategic positioning of all three nations, noting they sit "at the very center of the world's energy transfer and logistics routes."
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The minister expressed "great hopes for increased international trade" and flagged investment cooperation in port operations, airline operations, information technology and artificial intelligence as priority sectors for trilateral engagement.
Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Georgia have historically leveraged their shared geography to develop major cross-border infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines and rail corridors linking Asia to Europe. The forum appears aimed at building on that foundation with a broader commercial agenda.
Bolat closed with a direct appeal to policymakers, saying it is the responsibility of officials "to pave the way and to clear the mines on the way for businesses" in order to achieve "much more close economic integration" among the three countries.
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