Interest in Türkiye growing, says Finance Minister Şimşek

ISTANBUL

Interest in Türkiye is growing, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said on social media platform X, after holding talks in Germany during a one-day visit.

He had productive meetings with executives of large companies and investors in Germany, the minister said.

“We are intensifying our efforts to increase international direct investments, which is our main goal,” Şimşek added.

Şimşek traveled to Germany’s Bavaria for a summit organized by The Stern Stewart Institute, a leading thinktank, officials from the Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister told state-run Anadolu Agency.

CEOs and CFOs of more than 50 largest German companies as well as academics took part in the event which kicked off on Sept. 19.

On the second day of the summit, Şimşek attended a special session on Türkiye, where executives of companies that already have investments or plan to invest in Türkiye, were also present.

In another session organized for Türkiye, Şimşek met with investors and answered questions from them.

Those meetings were held behind closed doors.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in Türkiye amounted to $670 million in July, according to the latest balance of payments data of the Central Bank.

From January to July, Türkiye lured a total of $2.66 billion in FDI against an FDI inflow of $2.75 billion in the same period of last year.

In July, Germany had the largest share in FDI equity capital inflows into Türkiye with 39 percent, followed by the Netherlands at 24 percent and the U.S. at 12 percent, according to a report by the International Investors’ Association (YASED).

Since 2002, cumulative FDI inflows to Türkiye have surpassed $269 billion.