Turkish Transport Minister: "No reason why we should not be one of the top five economies"

Turkish Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoglu on Thursday played up Turkey's goal of becoming one of the leading advanced economies "thanks to the right investments."

President Tayyip Erdogan has promised over the past decade to take Turkey into the top ten economies by 2023, but the country has gradually fallen to 21st place.

That has not stopped Karaismailoglu from aiming higher, however: "There's no reason why we should not be in the top five."

"Turkey has completed large-scale infrastructure projects over the past 20 years. Our goal was to be among the 10 developed economies in the world, but at this rate, there is no obstacle for Turkey to be among the top five economies in a short period of time if it makes the right investments at the right time," Karaismaloglu said.

Turkey's estimated GDP for 2023 is $942 billion, while the top five current economies are the U.S., China, Japan, Germany, and India, with GDPs of $25,035 billion, $18,321 billion, $4,300 billion, $4,031, and $3,468, respectively.

In other words, Turkey needs to increase its GDP three times to catch up with India, the world's fifth largest economy.

Karaismailoglu also extolled Turkey's geographic advantages:

"We are in a very valuable place from which we can reach 67 countries and 1.6 billion people in just 4 hours by plane. We are in the middle of the world trade corridors. We have no obstacles to be a logistics centre," he said.