On May 26, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan honored an interactive videoconference jointly hosted by the Investment Office, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C to brief senior executives of US companies in the energy, defense-aviation, ICT, food, and healthcare industries on Türkiye's investment landscape and economic prospects.
During his address, President Erdoğan said although the pandemic has brought along certain difficulties for the world, it has also opened new windows of opportunity for Türkiye. “Türkiye has become more prominent in the search for alternatives to Asian-based production networks thanks to its industry, manufacturing capacity, competitive prices, qualified workforce, geographical location, and robust infrastructure. Many of our companies took advantage of the pandemic to expand into countries and regions where they had never done business before or had a small market share," President Erdoğan said.
Highlighting the 1.8 percent GDP growth in Türkiye in 2020, President Erdoğan added Türkiye became the country that posted the highest growth in the G20 after China, thanks to the endeavors of Turkish private sector, government support, and dynamic pandemic measures.
“We kept our communication channels open with the investment community through both our relevant ministries and the Investment Office. We have never abandoned our reform agenda for the past 19 years. We are doing the same thing today as we have done in the past for the challenges we have encountered," said President Erdoğan. He clarified that, in response to ever-changing conditions and requirements, Türkiye continues its reform process in its economy, law, and justice in a determined manner. President Erdoğan stated Türkiye has recently unveiled the Human Rights Action Plan together with the Economic Reform Package.
“Türkiye's National FDI Strategy Document will be unveiled soon"
President Erdoğan also heralded that Türkiye's national FDI Strategy document will be launched soon. “We aim to increase our annual share in global FDI by 50 percent in the medium term. With Türkiye's brand-new FDI Strategy Document, we have defined the type of value-added investments that our country needs. We have defined the responsibilities of our institutions in order to attract these investments. Hopefully, we will soon share the document with our country and international investors," President Erdoğan said.
“In this vein, we will simplify our incentives system and make it easier for investors to take advantage of incentives. Besides increasing investment inflows, we attach great significance to projects that will generate employment, speed up technological transformation and contribute positively to our current account balance. We will continue to attract international investors in certain areas, particularly in ICT, energy, and logistics," President Erdoğan added.
President Erdoğan stated Türkiye has always welcomed international investments and will continue doing so and said the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, Investment Office and Digital Transformation Office are all ready to assist US companies with new investment projects.
Investment Office President Burak Dağlıoğlu was also present at the meeting.