In the past couple of days we were concentrating our research on understanding why Turkey is an attractive place and why do we actually live here. We don’t just live here but also build up a start up company that will grow and see it as a flagship for fellow entrepreneurs to take an opportunity that we are looking at doing.
The logical point would be to look at the benefits of building a start up here, in Turkey. Bringing the company or just simply investing. Traditionally the google search will mainly reflect the components of investing in properties disregarding all of the other benefits that the country has to offer. Therefore let’s look at the 10 main reasons why you should invest in Turkey.
- 10 Reasons to invest in Turkey
10 Reasons to invest in Turkey
1. Robust Economy
Since 2003, Turkey has made radical changes that have skyrocketed the economy upwards. When the economy was trending in the top 20 in the world back then it is to date reaching the heights of being 11th. With the year on year growth considered to be close to 5% or averaging above this.
What do the numbers tell us?
In 19 years the economy went from just about 200 billion USD to close to 1 trillion USD in GDP. The reliance on imports has dropped by close to 30% while the domestic consumption has increased to 70%. This only means that the economy is domestically strong and the amount of exports have increased to 25% of the total GDP, that equals close to 250 billion USD. Only 19 years ago that was the whole economy while now 250 billion is the size of exports. Lastly, the government debt ratio to GDP is less than 30% which in comparison to the European counterparts is half.
2. Domestic + Accessible Markets
The total population of Turkey is getting close to 90 million people with over 24 regions having a population of over 1 million. Istanbul as the largest city has a population of 16 million while the other 4 top cities have a combined population of 16 million. This shows how fast the other cities have grown in the past 19 years not just demographically but also financially.
What do numbers tell us?
Since the overall economy has tripled so has the average income per capita, going from 10k USD per annum to 34k per annum. There are currently 14 million registered passenger vehicles and close to 130 million passenger travels domestically.
Given Turkish location being in between Asia, Europe and Middle East, strategically the country has signed up to the free trade agreements with the total accessible market share of close to 1 billion people.
This means that there is going to be a lot of growth internally in Turkey looking at how many cities are still managing a population under million, there is an easy access to countries under the free trade agreement with the total number of consumers coming close to 1 billion, this will only mean that the Turkey is very well positioned for testing the grounds domestically with an easier expansion overseas.
3. Strategic Location
Besides the physical connection between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, the benefit of coming to Turkey is also based on the timezone. The actual working hours in Turkey intersect with 16 different time zones. Turkish airlines fly to over 130 countries with 340 destinations, which makes it a convenient place to be. Turkish airlines are also part of the Star Alliance group, which means that you can still earn a lot of points for utilising their services and get better service.
PROXIMITY TO MAJOR MARKETS 1.3 billion people and $26T GDP in Europe, MENA and Central Asia at 4 hour flight-distance
CONNECTIVITY Turkish Airlines connects you to 340 destinations in 129 countries
MANUFACTURING & EXPORT HUB FOR MULTINATIONALS
AS WELL AS MANAGEMENT HUB FOR MULTINATIONALS
The total increase in the merchandise in 19 years went up from 36 to 225 billion with the 40% of exports attributing to Europe, 25% to Middle East and Africa with the remainder exports sent to “other countries”. This is an equivalent of 1% of the total global exports in the world.
4. Favourable Demographics
In comparison to the European or other markets, more than half of the Turkish population is under the age of 32. This would mean that the economic growth and prosperity will continue going for at least another 30 years and since the economy has tripled in its size in the past 19 years, it is only assumed that the growth could be seen to triple again over the next 20 years bringing the Turkish economy on par with the likes of Japan.
5. Skilled and Competitive Labour Force
The educational reforms in the past 20 years have allowed the country to produce highly educated engineers, while the cost of labour is 5 times cheaper than the European Union or the USA.
6. Continuous Reforms
These reforms have allowed the country to improve the business environment, where the registration of a company has dropped by 30 days and it takes only 7 days to register the company. In fact, across various indices the ease of doing business and regulatory restrictions for FDI has allowed the country to be a lot more competitive than its European counterparts like Poland or Romania.
7. Business Friendly Environment
Turkey understands that it will require a lot more international investments and to help achieve its goals it has focused on improving laws, especially when it comes to FDI. The country has signed bilateral agreements with 87 countries in order to avoid double taxation. Although the corporate tax rates are still at 42% it is still considered as a competitive place for people to open their respective businesses.
8. Lucrative Incentives
9. Fantastic R&D Ecosystem
The number of researchers in Turkey is currently counted at close to 300 thousand that are available for various R&D actions. The government has also created a favourable environment from the incentives perspectives, encouraging more businesses to move their R&D to Turkey. These incentives have been taken by 500 global companies so far and more to come.
10. Sectoral Opportunities
Resilient Healthcare System
In conclusion, we can only state that the numbers speak for themselves. The information has been prepared with the sources taken directly from the Turkish governmental authority that is responsible for growing the business. The opportunities across various sections are enormous and the population is available to make it work, while having access to close to a billion people as potential customers, product dependent.
