Yılmaz, recalling that southeastern Anatolia offers more opportunities compared to the rest of the country thanks to its proximity to Middle Eastern markets, also cited Turkey’s zero problems with neighbors policy as another factor recently drawing investments into the region. “The region becomes more attractive for investors thanks to its dynamic demographic structure, agricultural production capacity, abundance of natural resources, rapidly growing market and state incentives oriented toward investments,” he said, adding that the provinces in the region received the greatest support from the government’s latest incentive package that was introduced on July 14, 2009.
Yılmaz was speaking yesterday at the executive committee meeting of the GAP Development Platform in Diyarbakır. He said the government allocated TL 3.1 billion to GAP, which rises to TL 3.5 billion when also considering investments made in the region. The implementation of the project gained momentum with the announcement of a new GAP Action Plan in 2008, he said. The project might emerge as a new model for developing countries, Yılmaz remarked.
