YASED president: Foreigners confident, residents apprehensive
Posted by meb at May 10th, 2007
Capital inflow to Turkey is once again a hot topic after the tremendous demand — $12.9 billion — for the public offering of Halkbank and the purchase by Kuwait Investment of 10 percent of the offered shares.
International Investors Association (YASED) President Tahir Uysal said that foreign investors were more optimistic than domestic investors about Turkey. He said the reactions of Turkish investors were “either the most desperate or the most hopeful.” Turkey was perceived by foreigners as a confident country with a bright future, the ANKA news agency quoted him as saying in a recent interview.Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Turkey totaled $20 billion in 2006, and would be no less than this amount in 2007, Uysal added. He said Turkey was on the agenda of global investors, noting that Turkey was in 52nd place in 2003 with $1.8 billion FDI but was ranked ninth in 2006 with $20 billion.
Uysal also said that it was unfair to claim foreign investors did not make new investments, coming instead to Turkey through mergers and acquisitions. “When foreigners come here and purchase something they pay for it. That money is invested in another field by the entrepreneurs that sold the company,” he explained. “Money comes first by mergers and acquisitions and then turns into new investments.”
FDI contributions to an economy should be understood very well, Uysal stressed, adding that the capital inflow to China was what had made China’s transformation into an economic giant possible. Foreign investors had welcomed the early election decision in Turkey and said the important thing for foreigners was neither a single-party government nor a coalition government, but “the preservation of the democratic process.”
source: The New Anatolian
Related posts: