The Association of Turkish Building Material Producers said that Turkey’s construction sector’s contribution to the country’s overall growth in the H1 2010 increased by 5.7% due to new projects abroad.

Economists, consultants, construction companies and executives of exporters unions attended İMSAD meeting held late last week in Istanbul to discuss the contribution of construction to national growth, employment and exports.

According to the association, the sector has given the first signs of exiting the global crisis with 15.1% growth in the first month of 2010.

Noting that Turkish construction plays a key role for the construction materials sector, Mr Orhan Turan chairman of İMSAD said that growth would continue in the H2.

Mr Turan said that Europe’s construction and construction materials sectors have been shrinking since 2008 while Turkey started to grow in the Q1 of this year.

He said that Turkish construction consulting companies need to be improved with incentives and bank credits. At the recent Eximbank meeting with the participation of state minister Mr Zafer Çağlayan, we said long term credit should be allocated to consulting companies to expand their operations in the region.

Economist Mr Can Gürlesel said that the construction sector in the United States contracted by 5% in Q3 of 2008 and by 8.2% by the last quarter of 2008. He said that this contraction continued throughout last year, with quarterly shrinkages of 9.9%, 7.5%, 9.1% and 6%. In the European Union the construction sector contracted by 9.6 percent in the Q1 and by 3.7% in the Q2 2010.

Mr Kerem Alkin İMSAD advisor and also director of the Bloomberg HT news channel said that the ongoing construction of public buildings has contributed to the rise of the construction materials sector, as well as construction investments in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.

Mr Tahsin Öztiryaki chairman of the Istanbul Ferrous and Non Ferrous Metals Exporters Union or İDDMİB said that some Turkish companies are buying construction materials from China since they are cheaper.

Mr Ali Tezel social security consultant said that construction still acts as the locomotive of employment in Turkey by providing nearly 1.5 million jobs. With the sub sectors the figure rises to 3 million.

(Sourced from www.hurriyetdailynews.com)