İKMİB Held Buyer Delegation Program with NUPCO

İKMİB and NUPCO Held VIP Purchasing Delegation Program The Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association (İKMİB) organized a VIP purchasing delegation program with NUPCO, one of Saudi Arabia's largest supplier companies. The initiative aims to meet Saudi Arabia's pharmaceutical and medical device needs through supplies from Turkey through new business partnerships. With the re-establishment of relations with Saudi Arabia, activities are being organized to increase commercial relations between the two countries. To boost exports from the chemistry sector, one of the sectors with the highest exports to Saudi Arabia, the VIP purchasing delegation program organized by İKMİB with NUPCO was held on 10-11 May 2023. Established in 2009 and fully owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), NUPCO supplies pharmaceuticals and medical devices to hospitals under the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior, university hospitals and private hospitals, and manages USD 32 billion in tenders. İKMİB brought together senior managers of NUPCO and companies operating in the medical, pharmaceutical and medical device sectors with participating İKMİB member firms in Istanbul to ensure that pharmaceutical and medical device products needed by Saudi Arabia are sourced from Turkey and to contribute to sector exports. Within the scope of the two-day VIP purchasing delegation, business meetings were held on the first day between İKMİB participant companies and NUPCO executives. On the second day, the delegation was received at their offices by Mehmet Ali Kılıçkaya, Export Director General of the Turkish Ministry of Commerce; Selami Kılıç, Director General of Foreign Relations and European Union of the Turkish Ministry of Health; Kürşat Derici, Vice President of Economic Evaluations and Laboratory Services at TİTCK; and Mücahit Özdemir, Director General of DMO, and was briefed on the relevant institutions.

"We want to increase our cooperation with Saudi Arabia in all areas"

İKMİB Board Chairman Adil Pelister stated, "We held our Turkish Expo fair in Saudi Arabia in March to develop commercial relations between the two countries. Now, as İKMİB, for our pharmaceutical sector, which is one of the sub-sectors of our chemistry sector, we organized our NUPCO VIP purchasing delegation program to provide solutions to Saudi Arabia's needs in sectors such as medical, pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. We brought together NUPCO (National Unified Procurement Company) management, which supplies Saudi Arabia's pharmaceutical and medical device needs and makes annual purchases of USD 32 billion, with our Turkish companies operating in these sectors. In our discussions, we evaluated potential cooperation opportunities. While our chemistry sector's exports to Saudi Arabia were USD 131.4 million last year, in the first four months of this year they reached USD 77.8 million with a 45.14 percent increase. In pharmaceutical products, our exports were USD 123 thousand last year, while in the first four months of this year they increased to USD 1.2 million with a 922.41 percent increase. We believe that such activities will provide positive contributions to our exporters. We want to increase our cooperation with Saudi Arabia in all areas," he said.