Gulf nations determined to shift investments to Turkey

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Men walk past a Reiss store at Dubai Mall shopping center in Dubai, Feb 5. Turkey is increasingly attracting more Gulf capital. REUTERS photo

Investors from Gulf countries are looking for opportunities to shift funds from various countries to Turkey amid the European sovereign debt crisis and regional turmoil in the Middle East and northern Africa, said the top executive of a Bahrain-based lender yesterday.

“We are interested in Turkey’s banking sector,” Abdullatif Mohamed Janahi, chief executive officer of Venture Capital Bank, said to Hürriyet Daily News on the sidelines of the Turkey-Gulf Cooperation Council’s first business forum held in Istanbul.

“We are looking for opportunities investing in Turkey’s robust banking sector as well as agriculture and industry,” said Janahi. “There is a growing trend among the investors from Gulf countries towards Turkey, and this will continue as the European economic crisis continues to worries Gulf investors,” he said.

Venture Capital and its subsidiary Bank Alkhair, operating in Turkey, has acquired 65 percent of Göknur Gıda, a Turkish fruit juice and fruit puree company, as was announced at yesterday’s meeting. Ankara-based Göknur manufactures organic fruit juice for Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sun Top, Hero and Smuckers.

“Turkey remains to be the most successful model among the Islam countries,” said Saleh Kamel, head of the Federation of Gulf Cooperation Council Chambers (FGCCC) at the meeting organized by FGCCC and the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB).

“The countries in the Middle East and Gulf should benefit from the richness of Turkey, the richness not based on the underground sources, but pure work,” Kamel said.

Visa requirements and custom taxes between Turkey and Gulf countries still continue to be a major problem that businessmen struggle to cope with in the region, said Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, chairman of TOBB, at the meeting.