The economical performance Turkey has been displaying recently has been verified by another global agency to pave the way to an increase in credit note. The Fitch Group, a global rating agency based in both London and New York has declared that Turkey stands chances of being granted a better credit note thanks to its perfomance in current account deficit and inflation figures. The agency stated that Turkey' ...

The government’s recent decision to convert a former tobacco plant into a prison has angered the local chamber of commerce, which is demanding an industrial zone instead. “The government has chosen to build an eighth prison in the city, instead of establishing a second organized industrial site,” said Remzi Can, the head of the Diyarbakır Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in a press meeting on Aug. 24. Burç ...

Japanese companies discover Turkish “safe haven” amidst crisis Turkey’s consistently growing economy and robust economic fundamentals proved to be a safe haven for Japanese companies seeking ways of growth overseas amid a stagnant market at home and continuing debt woes in Eurozone countries. Within the last 5 years, Turkey saw a stellar increase in Japanese investments, up from a meager USD 2 million in 20 ...

The New York Times covers real estate sector in Turkey The long awaited reciprocity law which was passed through Turkish Parliament and the resulting flurry of activity in the real estate market were widely covered by The New York Times in an article entitled "House Hunting in Turkey.” Stating that the residents from more than 110 countries can buy property in Turkey, the article says that many new prospect ...

Sabancı Holding Chairman and Managing Director Güler Sabancı has been named the 93rd most powerful woman in the world by U.S. economy and business world magazine Forbes. The top position on the list remained the same as last year, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel taking the number one spot as the most powerful woman in the world for being a 'lead player in the euro zone economic crisis.' Following Merke ...

The local defense sector will present its products at least in eight international fairs next year, says Lütfi Varoğlu of the Undersecretariat of the Defense Industry The Turkish defense industry plans to promote its wide range of military products by attending at least eight international defense and security fairs next year, in a bid to increase its share in the global arms market. The local defense indus ...

Gold at months high, Istanbul bourse gains Gold was steady yesterday at a three-and-a-half month high, which was hit during the previous session, as investors remained hopeful the European Central Bank (ECB) would soon take action to contain the region’s debt crisis, according to Reuters. Recent media reports said the ECB has been mapping out details to cap Spanish and Italian borrowing costs, easing invest ...

Oil firm Genel Energy acquired a majority stake in Iraqi Kurdistan's Miran oilfields after inking a $450 million deal with English energy firm Heritage Oil on Tuesday, providing Genel with a 51 percent share in extraction rights in a region that the company says will secure six or seven years of oil for Turkey. Genel paid roughly $156 million to bring its stake in the jointly owned oil bloc -- semi-autonomo ...

French cosmetics group Yves Rocher has bought a 51 percent stake in Turkish beauty products company Flormar in a deal estimated at $150 million, the Turkish press reported Thursday. "Following this transaction the current shareholders will hold 49 percent of the capital and will have full management autonomy and responsibility," said Yves Rocher in confirming the deal. With sales of more than $100 million p ...

Turkey to launch ‘free health zones’ in 2014 Turkey looks to grow its share of the medical tourism market, promising to establish several ‘free health zones’ by 2014 that will mostly benefit from no taxes Turkey’s Health Ministry revealed the details of a new initiative to turn the country into a destination for health tourism in the region by instituting a network of “health free zones” throughout the coun ...

YANDEX, Russian search engine has achieved great success at homeland and is definitely the leading SE in several Russian speaking countries in the region, by far. It is Russia’s largest search engine and claims to be the most popular site in the Russian-speaking Internet.  In May 2011, Yandex raised $1.3 billion in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq. It was the biggest U.S. IPO for a dotcom since Goog ...

Growing Turkish market attracts British investors Firms from Britain invest a total of $1.9 billion in the first half of the year, recording the highest amount of investments among foreign countries, official data show In the first six months of 2012, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey rose 21 percent to $8.2 billion. Britain was the FDI leader with $1.9 billion. Britain’s acting consul general in Is ...

Turkish firm gets Israeli loan for power production Despite strained relations between Turkey and Israel following the flotilla incident in May 2010, Turkish and Israeli business ventures continue full steam ahead as witnessed by Zorlu Enerji’s $277 mln natural gas investments in Israel The Ashdod and Ramat natural gas facilities in Israel have been granted a loan of more tharn 1.1 billion Israeli Shekels ( ...

Turkey’s ambitious incentives are relatively low for solar plant investments compared with Germany, Spain, a report says.The Energy Market Regulatory Authority’s (EPDK) decision to begin accepting license applications for solar power plants as of June 2013 will boost solar energy investments in Turkey, according to a report from Deloitte Turkey. The country still lags behind major European economies in its ...

Turkey’s railway privatization plans stir foreign interest The plans regarding the opening of Turkey’s railroads to private sector use before the end of the year, brings forth investment opportunities for global companies operating in railroad industry. Private sector entry to the country’s currently state-controlled railroad transportation is expected to attract logistics companies as well as locomotive an ...

Jantsa and CLN to build a plant in Aydin at EUR 36 million Jantsa, a Turkish manufacturer of wheel rims producing mainly for the automotive and defense industry since 1977 and exporting to 80 countries worldwide, is forming a joint venture with Italian CLN Group, its biggest competitor in the global market. Both parties will have a 50 percent stake in JMW, the new joint venture that will be built in the Aeg ...

You are in Dalyan on holiday.. You’ve had a beautiful day on the beach.. You would now like to enjoy your evening.. How about visiting LA VIE jazz bar where you can listen to nice and quality music and sip your drink (reasonably priced) while you get to know friendly new people.. The bar is run by Celal (Yahyabeyoğlu), originally a musician as well.. In fact you could probably see him at the piano playing b ...

Turkey expects a great foreign interest in its estate market thanks to a new code. Still, neighboring countries may have lower chances due to a bunch of restrictions Citizens of Syria, Armenia and North Korea are not allowed to acquire any real property, including residential or business property or land, in Turkey, under a recently announced reciprocity regulation, which also prohibits Greek citizens from ...

TURKEY WEEKLY ECONOMIC OUTLOOK Considering the data about Turkey, the release of inflation and current account data was of great interest. We observe that there is a decline in current account deficit and in inflation rate in parallel with  expectations of Central Bank of Turkey. In fact, contractionary economy policy  and efforts made to balance high growth rates  have still contributed to these two downwa ...

More German companies are flocking to Turkey to take advantage of the country’s fast-growing market, German executives say. Out of around 30,000 foreign companies in Turkey, nearly 5,000 are German RWE executives and Energy Minister Taner Yıldız (C) are seen at the inauguration ceremony of the company’s power plant investment in the southwestern province of Denizli. German companies have accelerated their i ...

Despite the uncertainties in the global economy Turkey is reported to have received US$ 6,5 billionof FDI in the first five months of 2012 with an increase of 11 percent as compared to the same period of previous year. The successful performance of Turkey in this regard put the country among top 23 countries attracting highest FDI, in 2011. The Turkish government is fully aware of the importance of attracti ...

Travel blogging has become quite popular with the rise in the popularity of the internet during the last decade. Quite a few blog writers have been successful in making their blogs popular all over the world and in fact been quite a competition to Travel & Tourism sites on the web. One cannot help asking “How is it possible for a single guy (or gal) to make it to the top without enough support such as c ...

Turkish-run firm gets $212.5 mln from NASA NASA has granted $212.5 million to the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), owned by Turkish couple, Eren and Fatih Özmen, to support the firm’s space-taxi project “Dream Chaser.” Sierra Nevada is one of three companies NASA has chosen to support with a total fund of $1.1 billion. The other two companies are airplane manufacturer Boeing and SpaceX (Space Exploration Te ...