Turkey very popular for FDI, says WTO official

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey is very popular for foreign direct investments because it has all the essential factors for it, Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh, an official of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News.

“Any investor would be looking for four factors: presence of commercial opportunities, conducive investment environment, rule of law and stability-predictability of the conditions,” said Mamdouh, the director of the Trade in Services Division of the WTO, during the interview after WTO Regional Trade Policy Course Round Table held in Istanbul Bilgi University on June 6.

Firstly, Turkey tripled per capita income in the last ten years, he said, noting that it meant a rise in the purchasing power of the consumers and more demands as well as “more commercial opportunities,” which was very important for foreign investors.

“The second factor is the conducive investment environment in terms of the availability of the financial system – if you need to borrow money, you can, competitiveness, government policies on crucial issues like taxes, social welfare, extent of developing infrastructure,” he said. The investors should be sure about the efficiency of gain possibility, Mamdouh added.

The third essential factor for foreign investors is that there should be the rule of law in the country that they invest in. The investors need to know that their investment is safe, he said, adding that their legal rights should be protected in the country.

The final factor is the stability and predictability of the conditions. “An investor doesn’t want to feel that the rules of the game may change after all the calculations,” he said.

Mamdouh stated that when looking at these four factors, Turkey’s score was very high on the floor.