A 4-page statement was issued at the end of the meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Issues in the statement center not only on the complaints of foreign investors, but also those of local investors.
The aim of the meetingis obvious; to attract foreigninvestment to Turkey. With very few exceptions, everybody agrees on this. We need to support growth and development with foreign capital, since we do not have enough capital. In today's world the economy cannot survive without foreign investment. Your company will go and work abroad and others' countries will come and work in your country. No matter what we want, this is the way it has to be.
All of the participants in the meeting were from the groups working in Turkey. Companies like Metro, Lafarge, Fiat, Ford, Hyundai, Merloni, Mitsui, Nestle, Pirelli, Siemens, Toyota, Unilever, Citigroup, Arcelor, BNP Paribas, Nortel, Nunza, Rio Tinto and Iscar and Newmont have been in Turkey for years. All of them plan to grow and becoming more popular in Turkey, and naturally they would like to prepare the ground for this. The recent economic improvement and the new stability provide an important opportunity for them.
In addition to this, it was interesting that there were no new names in the meeting. World's giant companies, which have not made any investment in Turkey so far, did not attend it. I wish they had, and that representatives of companies like Microsoft, Sony, Samsung and Intel had attended as well. Maybe they do not think the improvements and stability we have achieved in our economy are sufficient, or maybe we failed to express ourselves well.
Turkey needs new companies andnew investments from new sectors. Adding variation to the present foreign investments and increasing those present investments which have high returns are necessary steps.
If we want Turkey to be more than a base of cheap labor, and more than a market and for others' products, we have to consider these issues. We need to focus on investment, and make a target and a plan. The next 50 or even 100 years should be directed towards picking certain sectors that have a future and then directing them to certain areas.
Yes, we certainly improve the investment climate; however, we should act in a planned way, rather than thinking 'Let's have foreign capital regardless of what kind it is'. Even today, I personally do not think we can answer the question, 'we need foreign investment in which regions for which sectors?'
It is the same for local investment. We all experienced that thoughtless investments that were made in the textile and confectionary sectors made for situations without potential. One should not just drifted whererever the wind will take one. 'Innovations and differences' should be our main goal. We need to follow all developments and trends in the world from New York to Peking, not just in Turkey, and bear in mind that 'it will definitely affect me'. Even if 'I' am in the most distant corner of Anatolia.
Only a very small number of companies can reasonably try to be the world's leading company in their sector. Companies continue to try to enter into every sector. The latest example is with cookies. Large corporations, which are expected to open great new horizons, attract investments and create new technologies, are going into the cookie business. Being great comes from having huge projects and not from competing with small and medium managements and even with the retailers.
We need to discover new things and do new different things. Young Administrators and Businessmen Association President Omer Isvan, whom I met with last week, stressed the same thing and underlined that entrepreneur mentality in Turkey needs to change. Briefly, he said, 'Young entrepreneurs who are ready to do new and original thing should be allowed to do so'. Maybe we need 'nuts', in a good sense, for this job. There are many young people ready to try. We only have to give them the chance.
In short, as Mevlana said, 'Yesterday is gone, my dear, now we need to say new things!' it is the same for all local and foreign investors in Turkey.
March 17, 2004
