The delegation also visited the Turkish Chamber of Commerce, businessmen, and the presidents of the most prominent investment companies in Turkey. Other participants of the meetings included Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who supervises the ISPAT.
The visit aims to attract pioneering Turkish investment companies to invest in the Kingdom. Al-Dabbagh discussed the investment climate in the Kingdom and the incentives and facilitations secured by the government to attract local, joint and foreign investments. There was emphasis placed on pioneering Turkish investment companies. The delegation also visited the presidents of the most prominent investment companies in Turkey such as Koch Group and Sabanci. Saudi businessman Muhammad Jameel, who is considered one of the high-profile investors in Turkey, attended some of these meetings.
The Turkish delegation was familiarized with the vision of SAGIA, which concentrates on orienting global companies toward specific investment opportunities in some of the strategic sectors such as transportation, energy, and knowledge-based industries. In addition, SAGIA aims at introducing the investment opportunities in the integrated economic cities, the investment regulations, and the increasing tendency of international entities to invest in the Kingdom. This move came about after the Saudi government took several steps to improve the investment environment, and grant increased foreign and joint investment opportunities in various sectors.
Several Turkish mass media referred to the visit and both HÜRR_YET and Evrensel newspapers allocated a remarkable space to talk about the investment environment in the Kingdom and investment opportunities. The newspapers stressed on the importance of utilizing the Saudi-Turkish relations in supporting and increasing mutual investments in the sectors where each country has specific qualitative advantages, especially that the Kingdom and Turkey are on top of the list of the most attractive nations for direct foreign investments in the Middle East and West Asia according to the International Investment Report issued by the UNCTAD.
Al-Dabbagh said: "The economic reforms introduced by the Kingdom qualified it to come on top of the Middle East countries and to occupy the 13th rank globally as per the "Business Performance Report" issued at the end of last year by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. This matter, along with other factors, allowed the Kingdom and Turkey to top the list of the most attractive nations for investments in the region."
The volume of trade exchange between the Kingdom and Turkey and the volume of mutual investments between both countries witnessed a high rate of growth throughout the recent years. In 2008, trade volumes between the Kingdom and Turkey stood at SR18.8 billion, and foreign direct investments were approximately SR1.26 billion.
