Turkey 'attractive country' for foreign investors

By Belgin Yakisan Mutlu and Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey is an attractive country for long-term investors with its strong economic fundamentals, agile private sector and young population, a vice president of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) said.

"There are opportunities here in several sectors in Turkey that we invest because of the long term potential of the country," Georgina Baker, IFC's vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia, told Anadolu Agency.

She noted the IFC first invested in Turkey almost 55 years ago and it has been operating on the ground for 32 years.

"We are a long-term investor, and if I wanted to get one message across to the readers about IFC in Turkey, it is that we are here to stay."

She also said the IFC has over 100 staff in its Istanbul office -- one of the corporation's largest offices in the world -- and it looked for new investments in several sectors in Turkey.

"There are three keywords we might say for what we are looking at now, which are growth, sustainability, and inclusion," she noted.

Baker stressed that the IFC's total investments in Turkey in the last 55 years reached around $15 billion.

Turkey is globally the second country where the IFC made its most of investments, among emerging markets, she added.

"We have invested a significant amount of $1.1 billion in long-term investments and provided around $800 million in trade finance last year, and we will continue to invest," she said.

Touching on Turkey's "new economic program", Baker stressed the government's step was in the right direction.

The "new economic program", which was announced in August, includes a series of measures and steps to provide fiscal discipline, reduce current account deficit, and boost productivity and savings.

She asserted that foreign investors were waiting and watching but they will start to return if the program, which was received positively in the market, is implemented and managed well.

"[New economic program] is a positive step in the right direction, the fact that it is bringing the different parts of the economy together onto one plan," Baker stressed.

Last year, Turkey attracted $10.93 billion in net foreign direct investment, according to official data.

Turkey's private sector is resilient to economic shocks, it has been performing well since 2000, especially in the 2008 global economic crisis, she underlined.

The IFC, established in 1956, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector as a member of the World Bank Group. It operates over 100 countries worldwide.