President of the Investment Office Ahmet Burak Dağlıoğlu mentioned that 52 projects have been decided to be launched in Turkey, and added, "The total investment value of these projects is nearly $4 billion, and they include an employment of around 10 thousand 500 people."

DEMANDS FROM 17 COUNTRIES

Dağlıoğlu noted that the Projects in question had been designed according to the demands of 17 different countries, especially the  USA, Germany, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands and India. Investment Office's President then added, "Depending on their investment values, Projects have been built on 18 different sectors such as chemical products, iron and steel, and other metals, energy, motor vehicles, and transport vehicles and mining/quarrying." Thirty-six of these Projects are based on greenfield investments, while the remaining 16 are expansion investments."

23 DIVERSE INVESTMENT AREAS

Dağlıoğlu underlined that 70 out of the 82 Projects regarded as potential investments, passed onto the research and feasibility stage as of June and continued: "The total investment value of the potential projects is approximately $4.76 billion. The total amount of investment envisaged by these projects is around 15 thousand 800. The projects include 23 diverse sectors comprising of information and communication technologies,  food products, machinery and equipment, chemical products, and spare parts for motor vehicles in particular. In concern with the investment value of the Projects, 27 countries take the lead while Germany, South Korea, USA, Turkey, Japan, Canada, and UAE 27 countries rose to prominence."

ATTRACTIVE SECTORS

Dağlıoğlu lined up the priority sectors from the perspective of foreign direct investments:  e-mobility, life sciences (pharmaceuticals, medical devices, hospital services), health,  information and communication technologies (consumer electronics, ICT, software), automotive, energy, chemicals and petrochemicals, machinery, defense and aerospace, logistics, infrastructure, agriculture, food, and drink.

ECONOMIC FOCUS SHIFTING TOWARDS ASIA

Pointing to the need to identify the investors' geographical profiles, Dağlıoğlu added, "The European, American or Asian investors in Turkey or the investors from the Gulf region in our country have different expectations and ways of thinking." Dağlıoğlu underlined that they attached great importance to Asia in terms of investments and continued, "Since 2011, the share of the Asian countries within the scope of the foreign direct investments launched in Turkey went over 22 percent. The world's economic focus has been shifting towards Asia, and Turkey cannot ignore this tendency and act independently. Then again, this should not be interpreted as "turning our back to the USA."

HIGH ADVANTAGES IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Commenting on the supply chain's views would be sliding to Turkey after the pandemic, Dağlıoğlu said: "Our immediate priority is enabling our companies to perform their activities with minimum damage.  Throughout the pandemic, we received information requests and files in mobility, digitalization, and logistics from the companies located out of Turkey. New projects were included in our portfolio. There are also manufacturers from Asia. We followed all the global reports and views during this process, and they indeed demonstrate that this is an opportunity for Turkey. Our business world should be aware of this fact as well. All discussions are based on global supply chains.

Emphasizing that Turkey already had an economy integrated into the global supply chains, Dağlıoğlu expressed that increasing the share in these platforms would be possible. Dağlıoğlu pointed to the acceleration in the countries' protectionist tendencies and concluded: "Negotiations on having secure and flexible economic activities or procurements with perhaps more stocks instead of merely cost-oriented ones are being held with the purchasing managers of many countries. Still, we observe that the supply chain concept would remain unchanged. Instead of remaining local or narrow borders, regionalism is being discussed. Turkey achieves an advantage at this point, and I believe our country would continue to attract foreign direct investments."

1.236 ACTIVE R&D CENTERS

Burak Dağlıoğlu expressed that as of February 2020, Turkey embraced a total of 1.236 R&D centers, including 187 international ones, and added, "We wish the number of these centers that employ a total of 60 thousand 173 people would rise." Dağlıoğlu, pointed that the Investment Office had launched 224 investment projects with the worth $23 billion in the country so far and underlined that an employment of 48 thousand people was projected within the scope of these investments.

OUR GREATEST STRENGTH IS OUR COMPETENT ENGINEERS

Dağlıoğlu stressed that he projected an increase in the investments in R&D and technology in the future and added, "Turkey's competent engineers is the country's strong suit. The investment value of AVL, the automotive engineering company in our portfolio nearly seven years ago, remained around €100 thousand. Yet, today the company turned into a company that exports technology across the world. We aspire to embrace more of these companies, have an investment agenda where this competent labor force of Turkey capable of elevating  the level of technology could be perceived by foreign investors and  where this strength is acknowledged as a value."