The Saudi Arabian authorities, which have decided to boycott goods from Turkey, are now boycotting Turkish construction companies implementing their projects in the country. While according to the 2018 stats, Turkish contractors completed projects in Saudi Arabia for a total of $3 billion, in 2019 this figure dropped to $560 million, and in the first eight months of this year, the total amount of contracts was only $21 million. The stats includes additional work on old projects of Turkish companies in Saudi Arabia.
Emlak Kulisi, a construction and real estate newspaper in Turkey, reports with reference to the Turkish Construction Contractors Association (TMB) that the Saudis have begun to create serious difficulties for Turkish construction companies. The UAE authorities have been acting in the same way. While in 2017 the amount of contracts between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates was $ 1.7 billion, this year (for the first 8 months) it has become zero. The Association stated that Turkish companies have no problems with other countries of the Persian Gulf.
This year Turkey has been ranked the second in the world ranking after China with 44 Turkish construction companies in the TOP-250 of the best contractors in the world. According to TMB, from 1972 to 2020, Turkish contractors completed more than 10,000 large-scale projects in 126 countries around the world, with a total contract value of $ 401.3 billion. Saudi Arabia was in sixth place in terms of the number of projects implemented by the Turks over 50 years including infrastructure projects and real estate.