ANKARA
Turkish Airlines, Turkey's national air carrier, announced that it had launched a new route Tuesday between Istanbul and Taipei, the Taiwan capital.
The airlines started to run daily flights to and from Taipei starting on Tuesday.
"(This) will encourage business opportunities between two countries as many businessmen in Taiwan want to invest in Turkey which is a hub to Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East," Yaser Cheng, who represents the Taipei Economic and Cultural mission in Ankara, said.
Taiwan is the world’s 28th wealthiest nation and the sixth richest in Asia, but it lacks natural resources and its economy is highly dependent on exports such as electronics, telecommunications, precision machinery and biotechnology.
The volume of trade between Taiwan and Turkey was $2.1 billion in 2014, 96 percent of which consisted of Taiwanese exports to Turkey.
This marks Turkish Airlines' 33rd destination in the Asia-Pacific region. Turkish Airlines today offers flights to over 265 international destinations in 109 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America.
