Turkey sees 2020 as investment year: Minister

KÜTAHYA – Demirören News Agency

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Turkey sees the year 2020 as an investment year, the industry and technology minister said on Feb. 27.

Investment incentive data supports the country’s investment expectations, Mustafa Varank noted in an event in Turkey’s western Kütahya province.

“We broke a record with the number of investment incentive certificates both in December 2019 and January 2020,” he said.

The latest industrial production data was also quite high, both capacity utilization rates and real sector confidence rose in February, he recalled.

“The economic recovery that started in the third quarter of last year will sit on a stronger ground in the last quarter. In 2020, we will hopefully leave the performance of the last two years behind both in terms of growth and employment,” he added.

“We have dragged down the financing costs. The industrialists are very pleased. We are also working to lift burdens on the industrialists and manufacturers,” he said, referring to a study by the Finance Ministry to regulate the banking commissions and prices.

“We see 2020 as a year of investment. The conditions are getting more suitable.”

Referring to the ministry’s “Competitive Sectors Program” revealed last year, he said the ministry chose 11 projects to support, with costs totaling 65 million euros ($71 million).

Turkey targets to improve design, branding, and technologic know-how of SMEs and entrepreneurs in the country, Varank also said.

The minister pointed to the 11th Development Plan’s targets of increasing tourism sector income to $65 billion and annual number of foreign tourists to 75 million until 2023.

“We are aiming at creating attraction centers in the fields of thermal spring hospitality, artisanship, folk arts and gastronomy in [the western provinces of] Kütahya, Afyonkarahisar, Manisa and Uşak,” said Varank.