Rapid growth attracts int’l industry giants to Turkey

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

A pair of General Electric GENx-B2 engines is seen on a Boeing 747-8 airliner. GE plans to manufacture aircraft motors in Turkey, says Industry Minister Ergün. AFP photo

The world’s largest multinational companies have started to announce new investment plans in Turkey, a fruit of the sweeping incentive scheme announced by the government to attack the current account deficit by luring external investments. Potential investment opportunities reinforced with the scheme come as European economic and financial woes seem far from ending.

General Electric (GE), an American conglomerate, appears to be one of the first companies to make investment plans designed to take advantage of strategic investment incentives. The company has held two rounds of official talks on possible investments in Turkey with Industry Minister Nihat Ergün, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday.

“[GE] will invest in the electronics, locomotives, medical appliances, and aircraft motors sectors. In addition to this, they will establish a research and development center. We consider this to be very important. We have told them that Turkish scientists and industry professionals should participate in their [planned] operations here. [GE] will increase procurement from sub-industries,” he said.

The minister said the incentive scheme had a positive effect on GE’s decisions, and that all of the investment plans fall into the category of strategic investment. In designing the incentive scheme, the government divided Turkey into six groups of provinces in terms of investment priority and level of state support, and created a new category of strategic investments, which will receive incentives at the level granted to the fifth province group. GE will make its official investment announcement in June, Ergün said, adding that the GE’s regional headquarters will be moved to Istanbul.

Bosch brings new tech
Bosch Group, a German multinational engineering and electronics company, is working on a technology to cut fuel consumption by 30 percent, said Reuters, citing a company press release. It will manufacture diesel and gasoline injection systems with this new technology in its plant in the western province of Bursa in 2015, said Steven Young, the group’s representative in Turkey.

Speaking at Bosch’s annual press conference, Young said that Bosch Turkey would be spending 80 percent of the total investments in 2012 and 2013, worth 300 million euros, on new generation diesel and gasoline car engine injections.

Lenzing to invest more
Austrian fiber producer Lenzing will make most of its planned investments in Turkey, worth 1.5 billion euros, by 2014, said Livio Danisi, the chief executive of Filofibra, the agent of Lenzing in the country, according to a company press release.

“We put faith in the new incentive scheme,” he said at a press meeting where Christina Kreuzwiese, the head of Global Marketing Communication, was also present.

“We make most of our production in Turkey,” Kreuzwiese said, noting that renowned fashion brands including Marks & Spencer, H&M, Lacoste, Ungaro, Versace and Mango utilize Lenzing products.
“Europe is afraid of investing in Turkey, because they are frightened that Turkey will progress too much and outpace them,” she said.

Investment plans indicate a promising year in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI) and sustaining the successful upward trend seen in the last two years. Turkey’s FDI jumped to $16 billion last year up from $9 billion in 2010.