Turkey eyes over $1B investment promise from US companies

Erdogan will arrive in the U.S. on Tuesday for a four-day visit to attend a nuclear security summit and the opening ceremony of an Islamic-Ottoman complex in Maryland.

He is also expected to meet the CEOs of the U.S.’s 25 biggest companies at a gathering organized by DEIK, the Turkish Prime Ministry’s Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT) and the U.S.-Turkey Business Council.

“We expect an investment promise of over $1 billion from that roundtable meeting,” Omer Cihad Vardan, chairman of DEIK, told Anadolu Agency.

The president of ISPAT, Arda Ermut, said potential U.S. investors would meet Erdogan. “We will tell them to come and be a part of our success,” he said. “The energy, informatics, food, finance and health sectors will be on the agenda.”

According to Ermut, Turkey attracted around $1.5 billion in direct investment from the U.S. last year. In total, foreign investors provided $16.5 billion last year.

The U.S. is Turkey’s fifth largest export market, the Economy Ministry said, exporting goods and services worth $6.4 billion in 2015, making it the 33rd biggest supplier to the U.S. market.

Turkey’s imports from the U.S. were valued at $11.1 billion.

The U.S. has been listed as a target country for 2016 by the Economy Ministry.

Anadolu Agency