More and more global technology companies are planning to invest in Turkey, which recently secured nearly $50 million (TL 373 million) investment from Chinese smartphone giant Oppo, the Turkish Presidency's Investment Office Chairperson Burak Dağlıoğlu said Monday.

"Several international technology firms have been in contact. They're expected to disclose their investment plans soon," he said.

Dağlıoğlu told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Turkey is an attractive destination in terms of international digitalization investment thanks to its young, educated workforce, sophisticated industrial infrastructure, strong digital infrastructure and accessibility to a wide market.

"We see that global companies in different sectors position our country as a regional research and development (R&D), design, production, logistics and management center," he said.

Commenting on the recent announcements by Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo starting production at facilities in Turkey, Dağlıoğlu said over 10 million units of mobile phones are being sold in Turkey annually. The Investment Office thinks firms like Oppo will first meet the domestic demand and then start exporting.

"Meanwhile, the rate of domestic resources used in production will also gradually increase with those developments," he said, noting that this is an opportunity for local producers to integrate into global supply chains.

Emphasizing that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and supply chains became an important issue, Dağlıoğlu said subjects such as digitalization, automatization, sustainability, geographical proximity and geographical diversity came to fore as factors that would play a role in the reshaping of pandemic-disrupted supply chains.

Research has shown that companies will adopt a strategy to diversify production by expanding their production bases to wide geographies rather than having a single base. Dağlıoğlu said this presents an opportunity for Turkey especially in sectors such as electronics, machinery and parts, and chemicals, sectors that local firms did not usually enter as producers.

"We have been working in coordination with the ministries to examine the dynamics of the change, detect the opportunity fields for our country and determine concrete steps to benefit Turkey from those possible changes," Dağlıoğlu said.

Speaking on the works of the Investment Office, Dağlıoğlu noted that the office focuses on investments that would generate high added-value production and create employment, adding that their all-time priority "is to be on the agendas of the companies."

"Thus we continue to introduce Turkey to targeted sectors and investors," he said.