"Turkey is developing into a globally competitive auto hub, largely under the radar. It has a huge domestic market and the government appears to be reforming the economy in a way investors find attractive, so its growth is likely to continue," said John Wormald, Director of Autopolis, an auto-industry consulting firm.
Auto exports are surging. Seven out of every 10 vehicles made in Turkey are exported. The USD 22 billion auto industry employs more than 230,000 workers, and accounts for 20 percent of Turkey's total exports, according to Deloitte, a financial-advisory firm.
Source: http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/sectors/Pages/Automotive.aspx
Speaking during a visit by a Canadian trade mission to Istanbul, Yilmaz Arguden, Head of the Turkish-Canadian Business Forum, said Canada and Turkey are considering signing a free trade deal (FTA) after Canada signs a FTA with the EU.
Peter van Loan, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, said that Turkey, with its strong economy and dynamic market of 72 million, has a key place in the global economy and that the question of a FTA between Turkey and Canada would be considered after Canada signs a FTA with EU. “Canada has great expertise in environmental technologies and energy industry, particularly in nuclear power plants,” said van Loan, noting that Canadian firms are interested in energy investments in Turkey.
Turkey’s State Minister for Foreign Trade Zafer Caglayan called for stronger trade relations between the two countries and invited Canadian energy companies to invest in Turkey, saying “Canadian firms are welcome to bid on Turkey’s nuclear energy projects.”
Source: http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/
Foreign visitors coming to Turkey between January-October has increased by 6.2 percent when compared to the same period of the previous year. The total number of visitors has reached nearly 26 million, the majority comprising of Germans, Russians and British. Foreign visitors preferred Turkey’s Mediterranean shores by a large margin, 34.1 percent, followed by Marmara and Aegean regions.
According to data made available by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Germany tops the list of countries with nationals visiting Turkey. Some 4 million Germans visited Turkey in the first ten months of 2010, corresponding to 15.3 percent of Turkey’s total foreign visitors. Almost 3 million Russians and 2.5 million Britons visited the country, corresponding to 11.5 percent and 9.9 percent respectively. Iran, Bulgaria, Holland, Georgia, France, Syria and Italy are the other countries ranking behind the first three in terms of numbers of citizens visiting Turkey.
Source: http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/sectors/Pages/WellnessAndTourism.aspx
The automotive industry is close to breaking a sector record for all-times sales this year, with an expected 735,000 passenger cars, said Ali Haydar Bozkurt, Chief Executive of Toyota Turkey. A total of 729,000 passenger cars were sold in Turkey in 2005, the previous record-setting year. The sector started the year 2010 with low expectations due to the economic crisis, Bozkurt told Anatolia news agency on Sunday in the southern Anatolian province of Adana. “We did not even set a target for 2009,” he said.
“Low interest rates in car loans helped the industry recover from the effects of the financial crisis and the markets started doing well without government support” added Bozkurt.
As 70 percent of passenger car sales in Turkey are made with bank loans, interest rates are vital for the industry, said the Toyota CEO. The low rates made automobiles much more accessible, he said.
Source: http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/sectors/Pages/Automotive.aspx
The Energy Market Regulatory Agency (EMRA) convened on Thursday at last to evaluate the applications, according to an Anatolia news agency story filed Sunday.
The EMRA decided to give a license to Tektug, a Turkish electricity company, for a 25MW wind power plant in Adiyaman, in southeast Turkey. On average, 1 MW of power can supply electricity to as many as 300 households per year.
“The EMRA will continue to distribute licenses to projects whose technical assessment is positive and which do not involve more than one application for the same region,” Anatolia news agency reported.
Over the next term, the regulator is expected to give the go-ahead to 27 projects with a total capacity of 1,343 MW. These investments may total between TRY 2.7 billion and TRY 3.2 billion.
In a previous statement, EMRA Chief Hasan Koktas said Turkey’s current wind energy capacity is at 1,200 MW and that 2011 will be a year of “mobilization” in the private sector’s wind energy investments.
Source: http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/sectors/Pages/Energy.aspx
The shares of Emlak Konut Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), a state-run property developer, and catering firm Do&Co, have started trading on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE), with their executives ringing the opening bell together with ISE Chairman Huseyin Erkan.
“Next year, we expect the total volume of initial public offerings (IPOs) to reach TRY 10 billion,” said Erkan.
“We observed huge demand from foreign investors for Emlak Konut shares,” Erkan noted. Emlak Konut is the biggest company to hold an IPO this year and also the country’s largest REIT. It offered 25 percent of its shares to the public. “Emlak Konut ranks among the top five IPOs in Turkey,” said Erkan.
The total IPO volume this year has reached TRY 3.5 billion, while the volume of corporate bond issuances reached TRY 1 billion.
Source: http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/sectors/Pages/RealEstate.aspx
Recently released November data of the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) show that the Turkish economy is still on its strong growth track, a Goldman Sachs analysis indicates.
The 3-month average of PMI data reaching an average point of 53.6 shows that industrial production has increased by 2 percent in the last quarter, exceeding the previous quarter’s 1.2 percent.
The report supports Goldman Sachs’ early suggestion that the country will achieve 8.5 percent of GDP growth in 2010.
Source: http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/turkey/factsandfigures/Pages/Economy.aspx
