Arda Ermut, chairman of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) and World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) said: “The country has received around $200 billion investment since 2002, that in in 15 years. This is a serious amount. But we have never found it enough. Therefore, our aim is to attract even more investments, especially high value-added investments.”

Ermut said Turkey has started to attract investments from alternative regions such as East Asia and the Middle East.     

He added that Turkey continues to attract investments in every sector and that a significant portion of the funds still comes from Europe.     

Indicating that the funds coming from Europe have been usually in the fields of finance, machinery, science, and technology, Ermut said:     

"Investments from the Middle East and Far East Asia are directed to the fields of petrochemical, energy and real estate. Our aim is to diversify the sources of our investments. Because when Europe was hit by the 2008 global financial crisis investments in Turkey also took a serious hit as most of the direct investments are from Europe. So, the more we can diversify, the lower will be the impact of any global or regional crisis."      

Ermut said more than 57 percent of the $12.3 billion investments Turkey received in 2016 were secured after the treacherous coup attempt of July 15, stressing that investors' confidence in Turkey was not shaken.  

"WE HOPE TO CLOSE THIS YEAR IN MUCH BETTER POSITION THAN LAST YEAR."     

Pointing out that the investors' interest in Turkey has continued to grow, Ermut said:     

"The country has received around $200 billion investment since 2002, that is in 15 years. This is a serious amount. But we have never found it enough. Therefore, our aim is to attract even more investments, especially high value-added investments. We hope to close it in much better position than last year. 2016 was a difficult year, especially the first six months. Although 2017 has also been a tough year in the regional and global sense, we hope to close it in much better position than last year"     

Adding that Turkey on average has attracted $13 billion in investments annually since 2002, Ermut said they now aim to exceed the $22 billion thresholds achieved back in 2007.     

Ermut continued by explaining that Turkey is looking to increase its share in the global movement of foreign direct investments to more than 2 percent.     

"Turkey is indispensable for Europe with regard to investments because of its high productivity rates, high production capacity, quality and production time. Turkey's strategic position is also important because it is within a four-hour flight distance from countries with more than 1.6 billion people and $24 trillion of gross domestic product. "Easy access to regional markets, high-quality manpower, senior management quality and young population are also the reasons bringing more investment in Turkey. When it all comes together, we have all the main elements ready for investments. Therefore, we can say confidently that Turkey is a country that cannot be ignored by foreign investors."