Ernst & Young attractiveness survey: Turkey a ‘sleeping giant’
Posted by meb at February 14th, 2007
Ernst & Young, the global consultation and auditing firm, announced the results of its attractiveness survey focusing on foreign direct investment (FDI).
Turkey is called a “sleeping giant” in the attractiveness scoreboard of the survey, which revealed that investors are optimistic about Turkey’s future improvement but noted that to fully invest in the country they require further transparency and stability in the political environment as well as compliance with European economic and regulatory standards.
Ernst & Young International Location Advisory Services Partner Marc Lehrmitte said investors were comfortable with the risks and some structural obstacles but that they disliked the uncertainty. That is why the expectation of political stability came first, he said, with 32 percent of investors polled responding accordingly.
A press conference was held in İstanbul on Tuesday to introduce the survey, which was based on 200 interviews with decision makers across a range of industries, countries and business models. Turkey was ranked the second most attractive country in terms of perception while it was third in terms of FDI project numbers in the southeastern Europen region. “This is a good picture for Turkey, but it must be more aggressive in terms of attracting investment,” said Lehrmitte.
The survey indicated that Turkey was perceived as the most attractive country in the region for its domestic market and country-specific skills but indicated that Turkey has relatively high labor costs and a low level of confidence in the overall social climate and stability. “We Turks tend to evaluate the problems in the short term and curb ourselves, but foreigners are more patient and trust us more than we trust ourselves,” said Ernst & Young Turkey General Manager Osman Dinçbaş, who added that these surveys had in previous years been conducted by focusing only on western Europe and that Turkey had advanced to the point of being included in southeastern Europe. Ernst & Young South-East Europe Marketing Partner Paul Catsiapis said the region had diversified amounts of FDI but noted that the survey concluded that they will converge and that the region will become more homogenous.
Dinçbaş emphasized that Turkey has permanent advantages when compared to China and India, saying that they must focus on them. “For instance, one can transport goods from İstanbul to Vienna in one day, but China never could,” said he in response to a question.
source: Today’s Zaman
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