Eczacibasi: "With its strong economy, Turkey is now a magnet for investments"

Now foreigners are asking Turks to establish partnerships in Turkey, unlike the recent past when Turkish businesspeople scrambled to convince foreigners to invest here, according to Bulent Eczacibasi, the chairman of one of Turkey's largest business conglomerates, Eczacibasi Holding, active in the fields of health care, building products, finance, and information technology. "At the moment, we see Turkey has overcome issues which we used to think it could not and would never be able to solve," he told Turkish reporters on the sidelines of the ISH trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany on Saturday. "Turkey managed to acquire a healthy public finance structure after bringing its debt down to reasonable levels. It cut its deficit to 3.5 percent of its budget, outpacing most European nations. It has gone a long way in privatization and also strengthened the environment for investment by ensuring free market competition. It also got inflation under control." As a result of its resistance to external economic shocks and the enduring political stability under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) since late 2002, the country's risk premium is currently below that of some European Union member countries such as Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain. During these eight years in power, Eczacibasi said, businesspeople in Turkey started to see "an administration where substantial budgets were made and policies were implemented while targets were met and timely and accurate decisions were taken." He added, "This has created a highly significant atmosphere of trust for local and foreign investors."