Five companies to invest in Turkey's Izmir, to create 3,000 new jobs

The new investments are expected to create 3,000 new job opportunities, the Anatolian Agency reported.

 

Turkey has started to receive offers of major investments after tax incentives were resumed and promotional activities took place overseas, the president of the Executive Board of the Aegean Free Zone Development and Operating Company (ESBAS), Kaya Tuncer, told to the agency.

 

The number of factory closures and production suspension announcements in various sectors in Turkey, particularly the leading automotive and textile sectors, has increased as the affects of the global financial crisis started to bite hard into the country's economy.

 

Turkey's economy, which expanded nearly 7 percent annually on average between 2002 and 2007, showed growth of just 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, and is expected to contract in the fourth quarter due to a sharp decline in both exports and domestic demand.

 

There are currently around 300 companies, 75 of them foreign, operating in Izmir's free zone providing employment to 14,500 people, realizing an annual trade volume of $3.8 billion.

 

"We expect more investments in the next two years," Tuncer was quoted as saying.

 

Izmir is an attractive center for investment with its well educated human resources, ease of transportation and effective infrastructure, Tuncer added.

 

Turkey's estimated unemployment rate also rose to 12.3 percent in October-December in 2008 from the same period of the previous year, increasing by 645,000 to 2.995 million in the same period.