CAIRO - Turkish State Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Wednesday that 20 billion USD direct international investment that came to Turkey last year was around 20 times more than the average of 1980`s and 1990`s.
Delivering a keynote speech at Middle East and North Africa (MENA)-OECD Initiative ministerial meeting in Egyptian capital of Cairo, Simsek said OECD-MENA investment program progressed successfully indicating that Turkey supported the program being a country of the region and a member of OECD.
Simsek said all the participants of the meeting were aware that private sector investments should be mobilized to create a prosperous future for their citizens, and noted that every country needed a strategy appropriate to their own specialities, realities, and problems.
Commenting on the amount of foreign investment inflow in Turkey in the past 5 years, Simsek said, "Turkey`s economic performance has proved that structural reforms and good policies can work."
Simsek indicated that privatization program was revived to boost competition and productivity, and noted that successful practices in privatization lead to new private investments in liberalized industries.
"As a result of the reform program, direct foreign investment started to inflow in Turkey in 2002 and this reached to a record level in 2006," Simsek said.
Simsek underscored that, "according to the 2007 World Investment Report of UNCTAD, Turkey ranked the 16th among the countries attracting direct foreign investment."