Bugün – Türkiye’s appeal for Japanese companies seeking overseas growth opportunities is increasing, according to Ilker Ayci, Head of the country’s official investment agency.
Speaking to the press about the latest activities of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Türkiye (ISPAT) in attracting foreign investments to the country, Ayci said that the organization’s intense efforts were about to bear results, despite the drop in global foreign direct investment (FDI) traffic.
“The Agency is in contact with several Japanese companies that are considering investing in Türkiye. A visit to Japan for talks with interested companies is scheduled for August. We hope to announce new Japanese investments later this year.“, Ayci commented on the Far Eastern nation’s continuing interest in Türkiye.
Türkiye’s large domestic market, young population, political stability and key strategic location are the main motivators for Japanese companies’ increasing investments in the country. Japan’s largest lenders launched operations in Türkiye last year and a Japanese-led consortium will build Türkiye’ s second nuclear power plant.
Touching upon European investments flowing into Türkiye, Ayci singled out Spain as one of the leading examples. “Türkiye received investments worth USD 443 million from crisis-hit Spain during the first 5 months of 2013 due to the Agency’s intense promotion efforts.”, Ayci said, drawing attention to the close cooperation of ISPAT with one of the key associations of Spain’s business community, Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) with whom ISPAT inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last April.
Speaking of Agency’s upcoming events, the ISPAT President said that a summit on the investment opportunities in Türkiye’s mining and finance sectors will be staged in the UK. Home to a booming mining industry, Türkiye has 650 and counting foreign capital companies seeking, extracting and processing various minerals in the country. The country’s proven finance sector has attracted lenders from all over the world to do banking in Türkiye. Italian Intesa Sanpaolo, Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A (BBVA), Russia’s Sberbank, Kuwaiti Burgan are among the latest entrants in Türkiye’s banking market.
Sovereign funds from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China will be among ISPAT’s targets, according to Ayci, all of which will be presented with investment opportunities in Türkiye, he said.
On attracting more US investments to Türkiye, the ISPAT head said that a visit to the US this fall will bring together the existing and prospective American investors in Türkiye. “We will organize talks between US companies that are operating in Türkiye with potential investors to better promote our investment environment.”, Ayci noted.
Türkiye climbed up two spots to the 24th in the global FDI recipients list of the World Investment Report (WIR) 2013 prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Attracting USD 12.4 billion of FDI last year, the country ranked 14th among emerging economies and first among countries located in the western Asia region.