By Nuran Erkul
ANKARA
Turkey will continue to attract extensive foreign investment, the President of the Turkish Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency said Wednesday.
"It is our priority to attract international investments for Turkey that will contribute to reduce the budget deficit, provide technical experience and help the country reach its 2023 targets," İlker Ayci, whose agency is responsible for investment promotion, told The Anadolu Agency.
"Turkey attracted $10 billion in foreign investment in the first ten months of 2014, a 6,4 percent increase compared with the same period in 2013," he said. The agency attaches great importance to the manufacturing industry and the energy sectors, he said. "The shares of both sectors increased to 50 percent in the country's economy during the 2011 to 2014 period, an increase from 27 percent for the period of 2002 to 2010."
Energy sector made up 10 percent of total investments
In the energy sector, investments in mining almost doubled to 446 million from $250 million within the first ten months of 2014. "Although the global mining sector is declining, mining is growing in Turkey with the help of our Agency's activities for evaluating the mining reserves."
The electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning production and distribution sectors attracted $1,055 million in foreign investments. Thus, in total, energy investments reached $1,500 million in 2014.
Instability in neighboring countries not a disadvantage
Although instability in Turkey's neighboring countries such as Syria and Iraq and the economic crisis in Russia would seem to create disadvantages for Turkey as an investment target, these crises have not had much effect thanks to the country's good policies and risk management, Ayci said.
"Turkey's economy has grown for the last 20 quarters and has attracted $145 billion in investments since 2002," Ayci said.
Japan, China, Malaysia and Singapore are among the top countries investing in Turkey in the most recent period, Ayci said.
