Turkey climbs 22 places in foreign investment

Turkey has made great strides in 2004 with regards to foreign investment, by encouraging the liberalization and privatization of the economy. This effort has finally paid off as demonstrated this week by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development World Investment Report that stated: "Turkey has leaped to 35th place from the 57th place with direct foreign investments worth $2.7 billion in 2004. Turkey was also shown as the 18th most popular country in terms of research and development investments.The conference's report entitled "World Investment Report 2005: Transnational Corporations and the Internationalization of Research and Development" has been simultaneously published in Turkey as well as in the whole world. At a press meeting held in Istanbul this week, the report announced by the Foreign Investment Association stated that the total amount of foreign investment in the world peaked at $1.4 trillion in 2000 and fell in 2001, 2002 and 2003. It increased by 2% to become $648 billion in 2004. Investments in developing countries increased by 40% to $233 billion. Direct foreign investments in developed countries decreased by 14% and fell to $380 billion. Last year, nearly 36% of all direct foreign investments went to developing countries. Seven of the ten economies that increased most in direct foreign investment were developing or transition period economies and the 10 biggest falls took place in developed countries. Top 10 countries attracting direct foreign investments are the USA, Britain, China, Luxembourg, Australia, Belgium, Hong Kong, France, Spain and Brazil. The United States tops the list with $95.9 billion, Britain follows with $78.4 billion direct foreign investments and China comes third with $60.6 billion. Turkey jumps high to the 35th rank with $2.733 billion worth foreign investment in 2004. Turkey was at the 57th rank in 2003 with $1.694 billion. Turkey could be ranked within the first 20 Foreign Capital Association Secretary-General Mustafa Alper is optimistic that if Turkey surpasses $10 billion in foreign investment in 2005, the country could be ranked within the first 20 countries directly attracting foreign investments. However, Turkey is one of the countries that have no promotion agency and this is a serious handicap he said. "Foreign companies have been interested in Turkey in recent years, but these countries regard the investment as 8-20 years periods and they do decide on an investment today, but do the actually investing tomorrow," Alper added. Direct Foreign Investment by rank 1. USA $95.9 billion 2. UK $78.4 billion 3. China $60.6 billion 4. Luxembourg $57.0 billion 5. Australia $42.6 billion 6. Belgium $34.1 billion 7. Hong Kong $34.0 billion 8. France $24.3 billion 9. Spain $18.4 billion 10. Brazil $18.2 billion 35. Turkey $2.7 billion Â