Strengths and Weaknesses of Turkey Conducting Business in Turkey
From International Business Wiki
Turkey the Next Frontier Conducting Business in Turkey
Conducting business in or with businesses in Turkey may sound a strange but it’s not. Some could say that it is the complete opposite of strange which is brilliant. Turkey seems to have a rapidly growing economy. On the web site of economist.com in one of there articles they make mention of how big Turkey’s economy is, they said that Turkey has the “Worlds 19th biggest economy” (http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9988749). Now according to another web site, Doing Business in Turkey, Turkey was not always like this, back before 1980 Turkey had a closed economy. Turkey had an economic policy where they tried to substitute imported goods by trying to locally produced goods to meet the country’s demands. This way they could keep their money in the country. The local industries were protected effectively by custom duties and other taxes (http://akkaslaw.com/DoingBusinessinTurkey.aspx). In 1980 Turkey decided to open up its closed economy to the world and since then it seems like its economy has been flourishing. Part of the reason why Turkey has done so well is because it is a bridge that links Asia, Europe and the Middle East together. It is a strategically important hinge between the European world and the Asian world according to the economist.com website, (http://www.economist. com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9988749). The country already seems great because of its location but besides that there are other reasons why one may want to consider opening or investing in a business there, but just like everywhere else there are always pros and cons to doing business in an area and we will check to see if the positives aspects are worth dealing with the negative ones. Moving ones business to Turkey could be a good opportunity if you are looking to expand to multiple regions. Turkey is a great country because it is a bridge that connects Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Now because of this Turkey is somewhat the commercial hub for central Asia. Some other good news about Turkey is that Turkey has started the process of entering into the European Union; this would make it easier for business to buy and sell products in Turkey and Europe. Another reason why Turkey would be a great place to do business is that Turkey offers some incentives for business if they qualify. These incentives consisted of investment incentives, export, free trade zones, technology parks and research and development incentives. Now it is said that Turkey can be a very challenging market for a foreign business to get into. According to asistanbu.net it says that the Republic of Turkey is a very complex and challenging market that requires adaptability and persistence. Turkey is a medium developed country and a business should expect to run into some of the same challenges when dealing with a country of this status. Some of the challenges a business could come across are inconsistent, contradictory policies, and lack of transparency in decision-making, (http://www.asistanbul.net/en /business_guide_turkey#marketchallenges). Now these are problems a business might face going anywhere, but a way to deal with it is to try and plan ahead, do some investigating before hand. Now after hearing about the pros and cons about doing business or investing in Turkey it sounds like that the pros out way the cons. The reason being is that the cons are problems one will face just about anywhere they go and the pros is that in the end Turkey can help in connecting a business to three different parts of the world and it is also a very open market.
By Steven Inadi-Matecki
