Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to welcome you all to this forum gathering potential business partners in Türkiye. I thank the Investment Office of Türkiye and the organisers for this event.

This year, we are celebrating the centenary of the establishment of our Republic. We’ve set big targets for our second centenary. These include making our country one of the world’s top-ten economies.

Obviously, we will be able to reach this target through more trade, exports, production, FDI, twin transformation, and investments in new technologies.

In today’s event we want to outline our vision and investment opportunities in Türkiye.

Türkiye has many strengths, which are known to some of you:

• Prime location between East and the West
• Gateway to many regions with increased connectivity (spanning Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia - talking about 1.5 billion people - are all within a 4-hour flight distance + Turkish Airlines flights to 121 countries)
• Direct access to the EU market through the Customs Union. With an additional more than 20 FTAs, we talk about access to 1 billion consumers (456 EU + 476 FTA Countries + 85 TR)
• A growing domestic market (with a population of 85 million, half of whom are under the age of 33)
• Advanced manufacturing capacity
• A young and skilled workforce
• A dynamic and resilient economy with an annual GDP growth rate of 5.4% over the past 2 decades. (the Turkish economy has more than tripled over the past 20 years. Today, Türkiye is among the 6 nations whose populations are above 80 million, and GDP per capita is above 10 thousand dollars.)
• A healthy banking sector with strong capital structure, high asset quality, and profitability rates.
• A stable regional energy hub.

Therefore, since 2003, we have attracted more than 250 billion dollars of FDI. And today, about 80 thousand international companies operate in Türkiye.

From manufacturing and technology to renewable energy and infrastructure projects, Türkiye offers a diverse range of sectors for investment. These include:

• Automotive, machinery, aerospace, defence industry, energy, agrifood, and finance
• Which are supported with R&D incentives, Technology Development Zones, and Organised Industrial Zones,
• High-level digitalisation,
• A strong health sector,
• Major infrastructure projects (Ankara-İzmir and Mersin-Adana-Gaziantep high-speed electric railways supported by UK Export Finance),
• A dynamic renewable energy market with the goal of reaching net-zero in 2053, setting green and digital transformation as a priority.

Dear guests,

The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have inflicted a heavy toll on our economies, as well as on global energy and food security.

Growth has slowed down, inflation is stubborn, and protectionism has become commonplace.

Some of these are conjectural and some have structural and geopolitical reasons, including aging populations.

As Türkiye, we also take steps to mitigate these effects including:

• Ensuring financial stability
  
• Reducing inflation through tight monetary and fiscal policies
• Maintaining fiscal discipline (which is one of our strong sides compared with peer countries), and
• Achieving macro fiscal stability

We have recently adopted a medium-term plan, covering the years 2024-2026. The program aims to,

• Reinforce an environment of trust and stability in order to create a healthy business environment for investments that will increase employment,
• Improve the technology composition of production and exports with a focus on green and digital transformation.
• Achieve macroeconomic stability, reduce inflation, accelerate structural transformation to decrease the current account deficit, and strengthen public finances.

And according to the plan we aim to have a trillion-dollar economy.

These recent steps are welcomed by global players. For instance,

• The World Bank has recently unveiled a new 18 billion dollars loan package for Turkiye to show its support for the Government's efforts.
• UAE plans to invest billions of dollars in renewable energy, including energy storage, solar and wind.
• Alibaba Group announced plans to invest 2 billion dollars in Türkiye.

In fact, financial institutions such as the World Bank and the EBRD have always been comfortable in providing loans to Türkiye as it has always observed the terms of respective deals.

Dear guests,

Let me also give you a brief outlook of relations with the UK, which is an important strategic partner for us.

We are two non-EU NATO allies on opposite flanks of Europe.

Last week, Foreign Secretary Cleverly visited Türkiye. And the two Foreign Ministers underlined the strategic nature of the relationship.

Economy, trade, investments, tourism, defence industry, and security cooperation are driving forces in our relations.

The UK is a key trade partner. It is our 4th largest export market. ($13 billion exports in 2022. Türkiye’s total exports $254 billion, in 2022. % 5)

Türkiye is the UK’s 15th largest trading partner. (UK exported a total of 8 billion dollars to Türkiye, which is % 1.5 of total UK exports ($530.5 billion, in 2022)).

We have reached about 20 billion dollars of trade.

Obviously, we aim for higher figures and work hard together with the private sector.

To this end we decided to update and modernise the current FTA, to include services, digital economy, and advanced agricultural concessions, among others.

Our aim is to deepen the trade for economic growth and support our businesses.

We will also host the next round of (7th) Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting in Türkiye late November.

Türkiye is among the top favourite tourism destinations for the British people. Last year, the number of British tourists visiting Türkiye reached 3.4 million. This year, we are expecting to set a new record of around 4 million.

We have talks about various projects in the defence industry and energy.

UKEF continues to support major environment friendly projects, including solar farms and electric railways.

Mutual investments are also increasing. UK is the third largest foreign investor in Türkiye, after the Netherlands and the U.S. (In 2021, FDI from the UK to Türkiye was 8.9 billion pounds, whilst FDI to the UK was 720 million pounds. British investments are concentrated in the fields of food, banking, textiles and garments, construction materials, real estate, transportation, and logistics.)

Ladies and gentlemen,

As youn see, we have a positive picture, both at the official and private sector levels. And the numbers speak for themselves.

Today, we have a list of distinguished speakers and specialists who will share their insights and experience about investing in Türkiye.

As the Embassy, we are always ready to be your partner in your possible future investment projects in my country.

Before concluding, let me thank the organisers, sponsors, and partners, who have worked to make this event possible. I particularly want to thank the Investment Office of Türkiye for their support.

Thank you for your attention.