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Business / Qatar Business

Turkey revs up investment consultancy in Qatar

Published: 17 Sep 2017 - 12:50 pm | Last Updated: 01 Nov 2021 - 12:10 pm
Peninsula

By Satish Kanady / The Peninsula

With Qatar ramping up its investments in Turkey, the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) has strengthened its investment consulting service centre in Qatar by appointing a dedicated investment advisor.

ISPAT, officially known as The Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency, is the official organisation for promoting Turkey’s investment opportunities to the global business community and for providing assistance to investors before, during, and after their entry into Turkey.

ISPAT’s consulting services offer investors general and customised business information, such as providing updates and guidance on the latest laws and regulations with respect to FDI, establishing a business in Turkey, sector-specific and macroeconomic data, state incentives, operational costs, taxation, as well as detailed industry analysis and market reports in various sectors in an effort to help global investors fully comprehend the potential of the Turkish market.

““The Doha consultancy office will provide the right facilities and guidance to Qatari investors who want to invest in Turkey,” Al Sharq quoted the newly-appointed Doha Advisor as saying to Turkish news agency.

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already published a detailed guidelines meant for Qatari investors who wish to purchase real estate in Turkey.

With the bilateral trade relations between Qatar and Turkey offering much potential for growth, the private sector partnerships between the two countries getting stronger, an increasing number of Qatari companies are investing in Turkey. Currently, Qatar’s investments in Turkey is over $20bn, arguably the second highest value of investments by any country in Turkey . Qatar’s investments in Turkey is spread across wide sectors ranging from banking and financial sector to food processing.

The Turkish economy posted growth rates of 3.5 percent in Q4 2016 and 5 percent in Q1 2017. In monetary terms, Turkey attracted $11bn of FDI during the August 2016 to June 2017 period, with the first six months of 2017 seeing FDI equity investments inflow into Turkey surging 50 percent y-o-y to $4.1bn.

As per World Investment Report 2017, Turkey is most active country in promoting investments. The 2017 report prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), notes Turkey has noticeably increased foreign direct investments (FDI) over the last 15 years, attracting $12.3bn in 2016 alone. The FDI inflows reflect the country’s diversified industrial structure, with manufacturing accounting for around half of the total FDI.

The report also highlighted the reforms that have been implemented and the incentives that have been introduced in Turkey in recent years to attract investments, particularly incentives in R&D and those granting citizenship to foreigners under certain eligibility conditions.

According to the report, Turkey cemented its position as the most active country vying for FDI inflows in 2016 as it signed seven international investment agreements in the area of mutual encouragement and protection of investments. The report noted a total of 37 new international investment agreements were concluded in 2016, of which 30 were bilateral investment treaties and seven were treaties with investment provisions.