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We see great potential in cooperation with Turkish construction companies: Austrian Trade Undersecretary

Karabaczek said, “In addition to geopolitical location and strong logistic ties, the value given to quality in production, workforce capacity, successful engineers, access to eastern countries and Africa are the factors that make investments in Turkey attractive.”

Austria’s Turkey Trade Undersecretary Georg Karabaczek stated that its geopolitical position, strong logistic ties, value given to quality in production and workforce capacity make the investment in Turkey attractive, “We see great potential in more cooperation between Turkish construction companies and Austrian suppliers especially in the construction sector.”

According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, Austria ranks as the 4th country with the most international direct investments in Turkey between 2002 and 2020 (January-October).

The country’s total direct investment in Turkey in the said period reached $10 billion 632 million. Various cooperation opportunities are also considered in order to increase this amount.

Karabaczek made an assessment of the investments that Austria has made and is planning to make in Turkey.

Referring to the factors that influence Austrian investors to prefer Turkey, Karabaczek, “In addition to its geopolitical location and strong logistical ties, the value given to quality in production, workforce capacity, successful engineers, access to eastern countries and Africa are the factors that make investment in Turkey attractive, as many sectors in the country are export-oriented.”

Drawing attention to Turkey’s geographical location, Karabaczek said that it is an ideal bridge for Middle East, Central Asia, and African markets, he added saying that in addition to hosting representatives from most countries in the region, offering a very good flight network with strong logistics service providers such as Turkish Airlines made Istanbul an ideal place to do business.

Emphasizing that Turkey is a big country with its population and close to Europe, Karabaczek stated that the country is an important market with its young and educated people.

“Leading sectors in our investments in Turkey are paper, packaging and logistics”

Karabaczek stated that the leading sectors in the investment of Austrian companies in Turkey are paper, packaging, and logistics, and also noted that there are Austrian brands in many cities of Turkey in areas such as lighting, city-regional planning, “master planning”.

Karabaczek pointed out that Austrian companies in Turkey are actively involved in many projects in urban ropeway systems, parking transition systems, construction materials, road barriers, and airport lighting, and informed that Istanbul Airport was illuminated by two leading Austrian lighting companies in the sector.

He stated that the search for manufacturers in Turkey is found in many fields, especially in textile, machinery, metal, and automotive, and made the following assessment:

“Although these conditions have become more efficient with the recently increasing information technologies, flexible and fast decision-making mechanisms in Turkey, there are still areas open to development in some areas. Austria’s successful work on technology issues attracts a lot of attention in Turkey.”

Karabaczek stated that Austrian companies have projects in different fields from biological water treatment plants in Turkey to rail transportation systems and road technologies.

“Turkey should invest more in energy, recycling systems, waste and water treatment”

Karabaczek, who also evaluated the sectors that promise potential for investors in Turkey, said that it would be beneficial for the country to invest more in areas such as energy, recycling systems, garbage, and water treatment and to activate environmental technologies.

Karabaczek said, “We see great potential in more cooperation between Turkish construction companies and Austrian suppliers, especially in the construction sector.” He expressed that the reinsurance cooperation agreement between Austria’s official export support agency Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB) and Turk Eximbank is very promising to facilitate the financing of joint projects in third markets.

“Austrian companies who manufacture in the Far East are turning to Turkey”

Karabaczek also mentioned that during the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic, the investments differ in terms of the sector and said:

“Austrian companies that have production in China and the Far East have taken steps towards turning to Turkey due to their economic and geographical advantages. Demands increased in this regard. As the Consulate General of Austria Trade Office, we tried to support Austrian companies in the most efficient way in this regard, to reach the companies they could directly cooperate with and to bring them together in a virtual environment.”

Pointing out that the “Nearshoring (market coming soon)” trend may be very promising for Turkish companies, Karabaczek said, “We are seeing a significant interest from Austria to supply more products from Turkey.”

Karabaczek added that the event and investment news about the Austrian Consulate General Trade Office can be followed on the website “www.advantageaustria.org/tr”.

Source: AA / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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