Frequently Asked Questions

Turkey is located on the north of the east Mediterranean and is a link between Asia and Europe.

Turkey's regulatory environment is extremely business-friendly. Irrespective of nationality or place of residence, a person can establish a business in a single day.

According to the World Bank's "Doing Business Database, 2009", Turkey ranks well ahead of all its competitors such as the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain and ahead of the OECD average.

Turkey has one of the most liberal legal systems for FDI of all the OECD countries. The new FDI law focuses mainly on the protection of investors' rights.

Turkey provides a rather competitive tax system and there are major corporate tax exemptions and allowances in many areas of business life.

The investment incentives scheme is continuously being amended to encourage investments in manufacturing and services, the energy sector and exports. Local and foreign investors have equal access to:

A. General investment incentive regime
B. Incentives for large-scale investments
C. Region and sector-based incentives
D. Incentives on employment
E. R&D supports
F. Support for SMEs
G. Industrial Thesis (SANTEZ) program
H. Loans for technical development projects
I. Training supports
J. State aids for exports

Special investment zones are created in order to provide an investor-friendly environment with proper infrastructure and various incentives.

There are four types of special investment zones in Turkey:

• Technology development zones
• Organized industrial zones
• Industrial zones
• Free zones

The Turkish government provides incentives to encourage, support and orient investments that are in line with international commitments.

Turkey's strategic location is very attractive for investors. It has a relatively new and highly developed technological infrastructure in transportation, telecommunications, and energy.

Turkey offers investors competitive labor costs with a workforce of over 24 million young, talented, motivated, and skilled people. Committed workers, flexible working hours, and a low absenteeism rate have enabled Turkey to achieve remarkable productivity levels.