The number of newly formed companies in Turkey rose nearly 23 percent year-on-year in March, the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) announced Friday in a report. In March, 7,469 new companies were established, compared to 6,075 businesses starting in the same month of 2017.

The chamber's figures showed that the top three sectors the new companies have chosen to operate in were wholesale and retail, construction and manufacturing.

"In March 2018, 974 companies with foreign partners were established," the report said. It said, "511 of these companies had Turkish partners, 139 had Syrian partners, 103 had Saudi Arabian partners." The union also noted that the number of company shutdowns in March was up 9.75 percent on a yearly basis. In 2017, some 72,871 companies were established - up 14.4 percent from 2016 - while 13,517 companies went out of business.