Turkish FDI rise 25 pct in 2 months

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Foreign investments into Turkey increases substantially despite the European crisis, Minister Çağlayan says. AA photo

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Turkey increased 25 percent to $1.7 billion during the first two months of the year compared with the same period last year, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said May 4.

Investments constitute the cornerstone of government policy on maintaining economic development, sustainability of growth and improving the national development level, Çağlayan said, adding that one of the main conditions to increase investments was to maintain a competitive environment where doing business is easy.

The rate of FDI increase into Turkey is nearly 4 times the world average, he said. Despite European economic woes, the FDI figure in 2011 increased by 76 percent to $15.9 billion, while the forecasted amount of global FDI was up by 17 percent, reaching $1.5 trillion from 2010. The rate of increase was 18 percent in OECD countries and 30 percent in the European Union. The share of Turkey in global FDI rose to 1.1 percent, he added.

Çağlayan also mentioned that more foreign investment would be flowing into Turkey soon. “Expect serious investments in the chemicals industry in the upcoming days,” he said. American firms and investors have a great deal of interest in pharmaceuticals, energy, automotives and electronic media, and investors are particularly interested in the sixth zone incentives in textiles, he added.

The government recently announced a comprehensive incentive scheme that divides the country into six investment zones. The sixth zone, which covers poor eastern and southeastern provinces, will receive the most investment support, especially in labor-intensive industries.