$200B in FDI flowed to Turkey in 16 years

THERE was a sudden increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) to Turkey after 2002, when the ruling AK Party came to power. Since then, there has been a total of $200 billion in FDI to Turkey, according to a senior official.

FOREIGN direct investment (FDI) in Turkey, which amounted to only $15 billion until 2002, has reached approximately $200 billion in the last 16 years, the head of the presidential office for investments said.

“Not just developing ones, developed countries are also carrying out efforts to attract new investments,” said Arda Ermut, the head of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Investment Office.

He stressed that more countries are trying to claim a bigger share of the pie because many have stopped growing, some has even shrunk during the recent financial crises.

Ermut was speaking at the 3rd Istanbul PPP Week panel on the “Presidential System and Turkish Investment Climate,” in Istanbul.

The event, attended by over 40 bureaucrats from 26 countries, was organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK).

The Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Investment Office, previously called the Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT), was restructured under the new governance system.

Speaking of ISPAT, Ermut said that since the day of its foundation, the agency has made some serious progress. “In this process, awareness on the importance of direct investments has increased not only inhouse but also in bureaucracy and government institutions,” he added.

He said that one of the most important guarantees for investors coming to Turkey is the country’s obligation to attract direct investments and that Turkey has taken very important steps in this field for years, providing ease of doing business in the process.

Ermut pointed to the development model drawn by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an important part of the reforms. He said the reforms related to this development model were intensively realized in 2002-2003 period.

“This reform program has paved the way for more direct investments in Turkey,” Ermut continued, highlighting that its reflection has been quite well so far.

“As you know, foreign direct investment made in Turkey amounted to only $15 billion until 2002; that figure has reached approximately $200 billion since,” he said, pointing to the significant reforms, improvements in the investment environment and investments in developing countries up to 2009.

The total FDI in Turkey from January to August this year was around $7 billion, roughly the same as last year’s FDI in the same period.

Ermut had previously said that the investment office expected to exceed $11 billion in foreign investments this year, the same as in 2017.

DEİK Chairman Nail Olpak said that the 3rd Istanbul PPP Week has provided the international business world with clear and accurate information about the strategies and steps taken to develop the investment environment in Turkey.

He said that the atmosphere of the talks, held with the members of local and international partners conducting overseas business activities, foresaw that the Presidential Governance System will positively affect Turley’s investment climate.

He also underlined that Turkey possesses important experience and knowledge in the field of public-private partnership.

“Over the past year, we have fielded many questions about our experience and knowledge in a wide geography, including countries in the Balkans, Central Asia and the Middle East, at the many business forums and roundtables DEİK organized. We always do our best to answer these questions,” Olpak said.