Caglayan touts huge auto investments

Industry and Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan said yesterday that an unspecified auto industry giant was getting ready to invest Ç800 million in Turkey's automotive industry, creating 5,000 jobs in the process. Stressing that industrial goods account for more than 90 percent of Turkey's exports, he said, "Turkey aims to reach $25 billion in automotive exports, and to allocate $20 billion for research and development by 2011." Caglayan also said that talks with another automaker that plans to invest in Turkey were continuing, but did not specify the companies involved. Touching on government efforts to simplify legal procedures for foreign investment, he said, "The government has enacted many laws towards this end, and will also make sweeping changes to the Turkish Commercial Code." He added that those changes would be passed by Parliament by July at the latest.