Turkey to become foreign investment hotspot (02.12.2007)

Economy Minister Mehmet Şimşek stated on Thursday at a joint Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Investment ministerial meeting held in Cairo that Turkey would become an attractive location for foreign investment in the coming years.

"Turkey will become a center of attention for foreign investment in the coming years," said Şimşek. Noting that Turkey was ranked sixth among developing nations and 16th among all countries in the world with foreign investment of $20 billion in 2006, Şimşek added: "Turkey will continue to attract foreign investment as long as it continues to take straight steps toward economic and political stability. The fact that Turkey succeeds in attracting foreign investment proves that we are good at this field. We will endeavor to make Turkey a more attractive center for foreign investors through new reforms to be introduced to this end."

Şimşek stressed that Turkey does not have a special project for attracting Arab investors and added: "The trade volume between Egypt and Turkey was around $1.1 billion, and we believe that this figure will reach $1.6 billion by the end of this year. Our objective is to increase the trade volume between the two countries to $3 billion." Saying that Egyptian investors are eyeing the Turkish market -- especially after Turkey signed a free trade agreement with Cairo, Şimşek stated that Turkish companies have covered a long distance on the path toward globalization and pledged to support Turkish businessmen in every field.

Upon questions over the Turkish economy, Şimşek said: "Increasing oil prices are a negative development for Turkey, but they cannot deter Turkey's dynamic structure from continuing to grow. The upwards trend in oil prices is causing Turkey to go through hard times in terms of foreign trade deficit and inflation, but though oil prices have almost quadrupled in the last four years, Turkey continued to grow. The rate of inflation has decreased to single digits. Turkey has attracted foreign investment despite the high current account deficit. The economy is less influenced by foreign factors when compared to the past. We will strengthen the economy with further reforms."