EU dominates foreign investments to Turkey

Some 77.8% of direct international investments in Turkey within the first six months of the year came from members of the European Union, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said yesterday ad reported by daily Hurriyet. Among the largest investing countries was Britain with 2 billion USD, Austria with 1.4 billion USD and Luxembourg with 676 million USD invested between January and June, he said. Total investments soared by 21% year on year in the first six months reaching 8.2 billion USD, he said. \"The growth figure confirms that Turkey is a safe haven for direct investments,\" he said. The manufacturing industry attracted the most investment, the minister said. \"Some 3.1 billion USD of direct international investments were made in the manufacturing industry in the January to June period, with food and beverage manufacturing taking the first place. Rubber and plastic products manufacturing took second place, attracting 410 million USD worth investments. The amount of direct international investments was 1.3 billion USD in the construction industry and 715 million USD in the banking and finance industry,\" he said. The number of the international companies established in the period was 620, while 79 domestic companies accepted international capital. A total of 30,333 foreign companies were active in Turkey as of the end of June 2012, 52% of which had partner companies from the European Union. Germany led the way in terms of the number of companies operating in Turkey with 4,918 followed by Britain at 2,369 and the Netherlands at 2,014. Of the foreign companies in Turkey, 6,546 of them are from Middle Eastern countries