Turkish textile companies are looking to penetrate into new markets to sustain their export growth since the companies are already facing losses from their traditional export markets due to political and security problems in their neighbourhood.

At the world’s biggest trade fair for the home-textile and contract textile industry named Heimtextil show of Frankfurt in Germany, Turkish exhibitors are trying to intensify their links to Malaysia and the ASEAN markets.

Turkey is surrounded by a violent neighbourhood: a war-ravaged Syria, an unstable Iraq and a sanction-plagued Russia, said Turkish exhibitors and representatives of various textile and garment associations.

The number of Turkish exhibitors at the show has sharply increased from 159 in 2015 to 211 in 2016.

Turkish exhibitors occupy the second largest display space - about 16,000sq-m - after Germany, stated M Atilla Bulut, the deputy general coordinator (fairs) of the Turkish Home Textile Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association.

“Our advantage over China is our proximity to Europe - we know and understand Europe’s needs and are familiar with the region’s economic and cultural idiosyncrasies. Turkey has a problem on its borders with Syria, Iraq and Russia, even though it has no internal security problem,” he said.

Turkish exporters, as a result, are forced to look for markets beyond their borders, to South-East Asia, where the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was recently formed.

Since Malaysia is one of the so-called ‘core countries’ of the community, Turkish exporters see it as an attractive market and some of them plan to visit Malaysia and other ASEAN countries in the near future to promote their exports.