The president of the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT), Arda Ermut, said Turkey attracted a net foreign direct investment (FDI) of $12.6 billion and achieved a 32 percent surge in the first nine months of the year, as foreign investors who were waiting on the results of the Nov. 1 elections started to call the agency to report new investments just one day after the elections.
Stressing that FDI is expected to exceed $14 billion by the end of the year and around $16 billion by the end of 2016, Ermut said Turkey will experience a more stable growth trend in the upcoming years.
Ermut added that Turkey's share of the world's overall FDI has risen to 1 percent, adding: "This is not enough." According to Ermut, the greatest share that Turkey has so far received of global foreign direct investment is 1.36 percent. "We aim to reach 1.5 percent," he said.
Ermut said he attended meetings held with China and Singapore during the recent G20 Leaders' Summit in Antalya after being invited by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He added that Turkey is looking for ways to cooperate with China in the automotive sector. According to Ermut's statements, Turkey expects a major Chinese investment in the food sector and that a Far Eastern company will make a significant investment into the petrochemical industry. Investments in coal mines in the Afşin-Elbistan region might take effect in 2016, Ermut said, while a northern European country is willing to invest in a sub-industry of the aviation sector.
Half of all FDI flowed into the manufacturing and energy sectors in the first nine months of the year, and FDI soared 40 percent compared to the same period of last year. Spain, the U.S. and the Netherlands are the countries that invested the most in the country between January and September.
