Turkey’s developing economy offers lucrative investment opportunities in infrastructure across a wide variety of sectors including transportation, healthcare, and energy. According to the World Bank, Turkey ranks 3rd globally in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, with a total contract value of USD 165 billion from 1990 to 2015. With a successful track record of over 220 PPP implementations across a diversified portfolio of infrastructure assets, Turkey has been able to realize around 80 percent of those projects over the past decade.
Turkey has solid rationales for investment in infrastructure:
- The Turkish economy exhibits a robust annual GDP growth rate of 5.5 percent on average.
- Turkey’s 82 million strong population is growing by an additional 1 million every year; this is coupled with a rapid urbanization process that has resulted in more than 20 urban centers with populations over 1 million, and of which 9 of those 20 have populations of over 2 million.
- Turkey’s growing international trade volume and strategic location compel the country to develop its infrastructure.
- As a bridge between the East and the West, Turkey leads the Middle Corridor at the heart of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
- Hosting more than 600,000 foreign patients a year, Turkey has significantly improved the quality of its healthcare services and will continue to invest in healthcare infrastructure to catch up with OECD.
- From transportation to healthcare and to energy, ample opportunities from mega to micro projects are available in the pipeline.
- Turkey has favorable investment legislation for PPP investments that may be realized through various models, such as build-operate, build-operate-transfer, transfer of operational rights, etc.
- Turkey’s government provides various forms of support and incentives to accelerate the project development.
- Turkey’s investment climate is further strengthened by domestic and international laws that protect investments and provide international arbitration.
- Turkey’s macroeconomic policies, investments, and more importantly, strong public finance management, support PPP investments that require guaranteed purchase.
