Home | Current Positions | Contact Us | Türkçe
About Alanyali & Alanyali
Executive Search Services
Selection Services
Turkey:A Regional Hub
Doing Business in Turkey


There are good reasons why Turkey is called ‘the gateway to Europe and Asia.’Its strategic location has long been regarded as an important link between diverse parts of the world.
Turkey sits at the cross-road of two continents, and is an ideal centre for business looking for location at the heart of Euro-Asia. The proximity to CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)) as well as to Middle Eastern and North African countries provides excellent access to world markets. This position is further enhanced through the Customs Union with the European Union.
Turkey is a rich source of well-educated, internationally experienced, executive talent. It is also worth noting that there are many experienced executives who are located in nearby countries.
With a diverse and cosmopolitan culture, Turkish executives find that it is very easy to adapt to other environments. Language barriers are also easily overcome, particularly Turkic Republics in the CIS where most languages are dialects of Turkish.

A fast developing Economy

The Turkish economy has shown remarkable performance with its steady growth over the last eight years. A sound macroeconomic strategy in combination with prudent fiscal policies and major structural reforms in effect since 2001, has integrated the Turkish economy into the globalized world, while transforming the country into one of the major recipients of FDI in its region. The structural reforms, hastened by Turkey’s EU accession process, have paved the way for comprehensive changes in a number of areas. The main objectives of these efforts were to increase the role of the private sector in the Turkish economy, to enhance the efficiency and resiliency of the financial sector, and to place the social security system on a more solid foundation. As these reforms have strengthened the macroeconomic fundamentals of the country, inflation drastically decreased to 6.4 percent by the end of 2010, down from 30 percent in 2002, while the EU-defined general government nominal debt stock fell to 41.6 percent from 74 percent in a period of eight years between 2002 and 2010. Hence, Turkey has been meeting the “60 percent-EU Maastricht criteria” for the public debt stock since 2004. As the GDP levels more than tripled to USD 736 billion in 2010, up from USD 231 billion in 2002, GDP per capita soared to USD 10,079, up from USD 3,500 in the given period. The visible improvements in the Turkish economy have also boosted foreign trade, while exports reached USD 114 billion by the end of 2010, up from USD 36 billion in 2002. Similarly, tourism revenues, which were around USD 8.5 billion in 2002, exceeded USD 20 billion in 2010.Significant improvements in such a short period of time have registered Turkey on the world economic scale as an exceptional emerging economy, the 16th largest economy in the world and the 6th largest economy when compared with the EU countries, according to GDP figures (at PPP) in 2010. Prior to the recent global recession which hit all economies throughout the world, the Turkish economy sustained strong economic growth for 27 quarters consecutively, making it one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. However, the global financial crisis has considerably challenged the macroeconomic and financial stability of many economies by adversely affecting financing facilities and external demand, thus causing a significant slowdown in all global economic activities.

While the financial markets in Turkey proved resilient to the crisis, the decrease in external demand and slowing international capital flows have had a negative impact on the economy, thus causing an economic contraction in 2009. However, the perceived positive developments in the economy showed signs of a fast recovery beginning as early as the last quarter of 2009, with an impressive 5.9 percent economic growth rate, hence making Turkey one of the fastest recovering economies in the world. Its robust economic growth continued in 2010 as well, having reached 12 percent, 10.3 percent, 5.2 percent and 9.2 percent in the first, second, third

and fourth quarters of 2010 respectively, thus achieving an overall growth rate of 8.9 percent throughout 2010. Turkey, with such a robust economic performance, stood out as the fastest growing economy in Europe and one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Read more: Information about Working conditions in Turkey from www.invest.gov.tr


Copyright © 2012 Alanyali & Alanyali. All rights reserved.

d.