Eastern provinces weak in securing FDI

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The eastern province of Bayburt is among the regions with no foreign direct investments.

Bayburt, Bitlis, Gümüşhane, Kırıkkale and Siirt have failed to secure a share in the country’s rising foreign direct investment, according to data provided by the Economy Ministry.

While the number of foreign companies operating in Turkey is close to 30,000, some 16,064 of these are located in Istanbul, according to the Economy Ministry’s 2011 foreign direct investment report. Only one foreign company is active in each of the provinces of Ardahan, Hakkari, Kırşehir and Tunceli in Eastern Turkey, and there are no foreign companies active in Bayburt, Bitlis, Gümüşhane, Kırıkkale or Siirt.

The Kırıkkale Chamber of Trade and Industry plans to invite foreign firms to invest in the province and has been working to make the region more attractive to investors, chamber’s President Cemalletin Akdoğan told the Anatolia news agency.

The absence of an airport or railway, and the region’s distance from a port make Gümüşhane and other areas in the region a poor choice for foreign investors, said Gümüşhane Chamber of Trade and Industry President İsmail Akçay. He added that there are currently 40 parcels of land in the province’s Organized Industrial Zone waiting for investors Nedim Kuzu, vice president of the Siirt Chamber of Trade and Industry, said his province expects to see both foreign and domestic investment as a result of the new incentive scheme. “We provide cheap land, cheap labor and all kinds of other incentives. Our proximity to the border is another advantage.”

Foreign direct investment is concentrated in Turkey’s coastal cities, according to the Economy Ministry’s report.