Automotive Exports December 2019

British consul general praises Turkey’s
‘vibrant environment’ for investors
Britain’s consul general in Istanbul
praised Turkey’s “very vibrant
environment” for British businesses.
Turkey has been facing challenges
over the last few years but big names
are still making money there and
are enjoying being in Turkey, said
Judith Slater, who is also the trade
commissioner for Eastern Europe and
Central Asia.
Addressing developments in the
Turkish economy, Slater told Anadolu
Agency: “We’re looking to see if the
reform program takes off and really
gets going and helps to solve some of
the challenges which the economy is
currently facing.”
The British side is closely watching
the country’s New Economic
Program, which was released in
September, she said during the
Great Entrepreneur Games event
in Istanbul. Slater said that the
U.K. organized the event in Turkey
because it has “confidence in the
technology sector in particular here.”
A quite large number of Turkish
technology startups are going to the
U.K. to raise funds for the “fabulous
ecosystem” in the U.K., according to
Slater.
“So this is quite a lively movement of
Turkish companies of that nature to
the U.K. We’ve also seen some large
investments over the years,” she said.
“My job is to help British businesses
who wanted to come to Turkey to work
here, to meet the right people, and to
make the sort of partnerships because
the event today is largely to encourage
Turkish technology companies to go to
the U.K.,” she stressed.
British companies, she said, are
also encouraged to invest in Turkey.
“Bupa, a big U.K. private health
insurance company, came out here in
acquiring Acıbadem health insurance
about two years ago and found some
really fantastic technologies already
happening here,” she said, adding that
Bupa is “adopting them in its other
businesses around the world.”
The British Consulate and the British
Chamber of Commerce help both
Turkish and British companies and give
free advice to them for investing and
finding partners and information, she
said. Slater urged: “Work with us, we
will try to help grow the £18 billion [$23
billion] bilateral trading partnership
that we already have in the U.K. and
Turkey.”
On the Brexit process, she cautioned
that Turkey’s EU customs union
membership complicates the trade
between the two countries. “But we are
really determined to make sure that we
have what we can in place to help the
£18 billion [$23 billion] bilateral trading
partnership to continue and indeed
grow in the future,” she said.
Turkey ranks 33rd in the World
Bank’s recently released Ease of
Doing Business Report, while the
U.K. was named number nine. Turkey
offers incentives, tax discounts, and
citizenship rights for foreign investors
in many areas.
December 2019
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