Turkey to focus on improving climate for investors

Turkey aims to cut red tape to boost investment in the country, Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

Among the innovations planned are one-stop contact points across Turkey’s provinces to provide better coordination for investors, the minister said.

The government is focused on improving the investment climate to boost economic growth, he added.

“Reducing bureaucracy is the main issue,” Akdag said Saturday. “We, as policymakers, will be more in the field.”

A monitoring system will also be put in place to follow up on the benefits of policies to investors.

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In its latest Doing Business report, published last October, Turkey was ranked 69th globally for its beneficial investment environment following a program of reform.

Turkey has seen foreign investment worth $185 billion over the last 14 years, according to the Prime Ministry’s Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey.

The country’s economy grew 5 per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 2016, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, and the government has targeted a growth rate of 4.4 percent by the end of the year.

In June, the World Bank raised its 2017 growth forecast for Turkey to 3.5 percent from 3 percent and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development made a revision to 3.4 percent from 3.3 percent.

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