Prime Minister Yıldırım: 2017 will be a year of investment flows for Turkey

The 9th Investment Advisory Council meeting aimed at improving Turkey's investment environment and attracting foreign investors to the country was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım at Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace Thursday. While most sessions have been kept closed to the press, Yıldırım delivered a speech in the morning giving brief information about the aim of the meeting, macroeconomic figures of the Turkish economy and the investment environment in the country. The prime minister underlined that the government expects next year to be a year of investment moves for Turkey. Yıldırım listed the main objectives of the meeting as "reviewing the previous year," "listening to good news from investors" and "hearing out their responsibilities."

The Prime Minister also added, "We will review what we can do in order to create a more available investment environment and turn our country into an attraction center for global investors along with the suggestions and demands we will hear."

Recalling that legal steps and executive measures related to the economy and investments have been taken within a five-month period since June, Yıldırım said these issues will be discussed in detail during the meeting and a final declaration will be announced afterwards.

Pointing out that the exchange is mutual and based on a win-win principle, Yıldırım called out to the investors that after they specify their investments, employment opportunities and contributions to the economy, then the government will provide them with the support they need, namely lifting the obstacles before them or providing financial support. Promising that all the aforementioned issues will be discussed in detail, Yıldırım noted that 2017 will be a year of investment flows which will come with brand new incentives and very important decisions that will increase the investors' appetite.

Deputy Prime Ministers Mehmet Şimşek and Nurettin Canikli, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, Finance Minister Naci Ağbal, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak, Development Minister Lütfi Elvan also attended the meeting.

Prior to the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli offered a special reception and dinner for the Investment Advisory Council members late Wednesday. The first closed session of the meeting has started with Yıldırım's speech and continued with council members exchanging their opinions of Turkey's investment environment at a round-table meeting.

The council members from 14 countries have attended the 9th Investment Advisory Council meeting. They operate in 10 different sectors with a total turnover of $666 billion and employ a total of 1.5 million employees.

Senior managers from the world's leading groups, including the World Bank Group's Vice President Cyril Muller, Alstom's CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO of Alzahid Group Holding AbdulRahman Al Zahid, APM Terminals' Senior Vice President Teimen Meester, Bank of China's Senior Vice President Qiang Liu, Bombardier's President Laurent Troger, CEO of British Petroleum Tufan Erginbilgiç, CEO of Burgan Bank Eduardo Eguren, Gemalto's Senior Vice President Tommi Nordberg, Khazanah Nasional Berhad's Executive Director Dato' Noorazman Abd Aziz, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Corporation Ali Faramawy, CEO of Mitsui & Co.Europe Atsushi Kume, CEO of Mumtalakat Mahmood Hashim Al Kooheji, Chairman of Nesma Saleh Al-Turki, Chairman of Qatar First Bank Abdulla Fahad Ghorab Al Marri, Renault's Senior Vice Chairman Denis Le Vot, CEO of Sberbank Herman Gref, Managing Director of Sojitz Europe Shigeya Kusano, Vice President of United Technologies Corporation David Hess, CEO of ZTE Corporation Zhang Renjun and Vodafone's Chief Executive of Vodafone Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific region Serpil Timuray attended the meeting.