Turkey’s new “Strong Investment Hub” program has moved from political messaging into a practical test of whether tax incentives, one-stop administration and export-oriented industrial policy can offset the macroeconomic and regulatory risks that still shape foreign investment decisions. For international investors, the comments by Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO) President Seyit Ardıç are significant because they frame the program not only as a tax package, but as an attempt to turn Turkey into a regional base for manufacturing, transit trade, technology services and multinational management functions.
Ankara Industry Sees a Strategic Investment Signal
According to Ekonomim, Ardıç said on April 24, 2026 that ASO welcomed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s announcements under the “Türkiye Yüzyılı Yatırım İçin Güçlü Merkez Programı,” describing the package as a concrete expression of Turkey’s ambition to become a regional investment, production, trade and finance center. He argued that the measures would directly affect exporters, foreign trade companies and industrial groups working with international supply chains.
The Ankara angle matters. Ardıç emphasized that Ankara is one of Turkey’s strongest production and technology centers, citing defense, machinery, medical devices, software, electronics, advanced engineering, technoparks, organized industrial zones and university-industry cooperation. That assessment is supported by recent export data. Hürriyet Daily News reported this week, citing an ASO report, that Ankara recorded $9.08 billion in exports in the first half of 2026, up 27.5 percent from $7.12 billion in the same period of 2025, and accounted for more than 40 percent of Turkey’s total export growth in that period.
For foreign investors, Ankara is therefore not merely an administrative capital. It is a defense, aerospace, engineering and public procurement ecosystem where market entry depends heavily on sector licensing, local partner selection, government relations, legal and tax compliance, import-export planning and project management. The new program is relevant because it could reduce the fiscal cost of placing regional service, technology or trade functions inside Turkey, but only if investors structure operations correctly.
What the Program Promised
The Presidency’s Directorate of Communications said Erdoğan announced the program at the Dolmabahçe Office on April 24, 2026. The speech tied the package to geopolitical instability, energy volatility and the reordering of global value chains. Erdoğan said Turkey was not only a bridge between east and west, but a base for energy and trade corridors, and that the government was taking legal, administrative, fiscal and institutional steps to support international direct investment.
The headline measures were broad. The Presidency said the deduction for profits from transit trade and overseas goods brokerage would rise from 50 percent to 100 percent for companies operating in the Istanbul Financial Center. It also said 95 percent of comparable profits would be excluded from taxable corporate income for companies outside the center. Regional management centers operating inside the Istanbul Financial Center would receive a 100 percent deduction for qualifying income for 20 years, while centers outside it would receive 95 percent.
The announcement also included a proposed one-stop office under the coordination of the Presidency’s Investment and Finance Office. Erdoğan said this structure would track company establishment, work and residence permits, tax and social security procedures, employment agency matters, land allocation, incentives and environmental impact assessment permits from a single channel.
In the original announcement, the government also presented export tax reductions, a 20-year exemption for foreign-source income of qualifying individuals relocating to Turkey, a 1 percent inheritance tax treatment for those individuals, asset repatriation rules, startup reforms and the first phase of the Terminal Istanbul project. EY’s April 30 tax alert described the package as aimed at positioning Turkey as an investment, export and regional management hub, while cautioning that the measures were then at the announcement stage and required primary and secondary legislation.
The Enacted Law Is More Nuanced
The biggest practical point for investors is that the enacted law is not identical to the April political announcement. KPMG Turkey reported that Law No. 7582 was published in the Official Gazette on June 4, 2026, No. 33270. The law amended several areas, including the Income Tax Law, Corporate Tax Law, Foreign Direct Investment Law, R&D legislation and Istanbul Finance Center Law.
For transit trade, the core incentive survived. KPMG said Law No. 7582 gives a 95 percent deduction for profits from selling goods purchased abroad to another country without importing them into Turkey, or from mediating goods transactions abroad. The deduction rises to 100 percent for Istanbul Financial Center participants and for qualifying industrial zones approved by the President. The law requires the relevant earnings to be transferred to Turkey by the corporate tax return filing deadline, and both the seller and buyer in the mediated transaction must be outside Turkey.
The law also created the “qualified service center” concept under the Foreign Direct Investment Law. The Istanbul Financial Center’s English version of Law No. 7582 states that a qualified service center must be a joint stock company serving affiliated or group companies active in at least three countries, with at least 80 percent of annual revenues derived from group companies abroad. Covered functions include financial advisory, risk management, treasury, funding, budgeting, international accounting, compliance, audit, digital transformation, legal consulting under Turkish professional rules, brand management, human resources, R&D coordination, procurement, product testing and laboratory services.
This is directly relevant to multinational groups considering Turkey for shared service centers, treasury coordination, regional compliance or technical support. But eligibility depends on corporate form, revenue mix, intra-group contracts, transfer pricing documentation, payroll treatment, work permits and location. This is where incorporation, legal and tax compliance, government relations and project management become operational necessities rather than optional support.
One prominent point of uncertainty concerns exporter tax rates. The April announcement, and Ardıç’s Ekonomim statement, referred to reducing corporate tax to 9 percent for manufacturing exporters and 14 percent for other exporters. However, Paksoy’s June 2026 tax analysis said Law No. 7582 did not retain those exporter-specific reduced rates as initially contemplated. PwC Tax Summaries states that the enacted measure is a 12.5 percent corporate income tax rate for income derived exclusively from manufacturing activities by companies holding an industrial registry certificate, and for agricultural production income, applicable from the 2027 tax year. Investors should therefore treat the 9 percent and 14 percent figures as part of the April policy discussion unless separately confirmed under current law.
The Macro Context Still Matters
Turkey is offering these incentives at a time when global FDI is becoming more selective. UN Trade and Development’s World Investment Report 2026 said global foreign direct investment rose 6 percent to $1.6 trillion in 2025, but the recovery remained fragile and concentrated. That global backdrop gives Turkey a window, especially for companies seeking alternatives near Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Turkey’s own FDI numbers improved in 2025. The Presidency’s Investment and Finance Office reported in February 2026 that Turkey attracted $13.1 billion of FDI in 2025, up 12.2 percent year-on-year, based on Central Bank balance of payments data. It said FDI excluding real estate reached $10.7 billion, which Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek described as the highest level in a decade. The Investment and Finance Office also said wholesale and retail trade accounted for 32 percent of 2025 inflows, manufacturing for 31 percent and information and communication for 14 percent.
Trade performance is another reason the package is export-focused. TurkStat’s foreign trade statistics show that, under the general trade system, exports reached $273.36 billion in 2025 while imports reached $365.37 billion. The resulting goods trade gap helps explain why policymakers are targeting transit trade, service exports, manufacturing and repatriated foreign assets.
But investors will price the incentives against macro risk. The Wall Street Journal reported that Turkey’s annual inflation eased to 35.05 percent in June 2026, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, and separately reported that the Central Bank kept its one-week repo rate at 37 percent on July 23, 2026 amid energy-price uncertainty. Fitch Ratings affirmed Turkey at BB- with a stable outlook in July 2026, while earlier in the year it had moved the outlook between positive and stable as policy credibility, external financing and inflation risks evolved.
The implication is straightforward. Tax incentives can improve projected returns, but they do not eliminate currency, financing, inflation and demand risks. Market entry strategy must therefore model lira costs, foreign-currency revenues, customs exposure, supplier contracts, financing terms and dividend repatriation under multiple scenarios.
Why Ankara Could Benefit
Ardıç’s support for the program reflects the structure of Ankara’s industrial base. Defense, aerospace, machinery, medtech and software firms often operate in long supply chains where foreign partners provide components, IP, engineering, testing, certification, export channels or capital. Investment incentives that favor qualified service centers, advanced technology, transit trade and production income can strengthen Ankara’s role as a location for regional engineering, after-sales support, defense-adjacent manufacturing and government-linked projects.
The defense and aerospace sector is especially relevant. Invest in Türkiye states that Turkish defense and aerospace exports rose from $1.6 billion in 2013 to $7.2 billion in 2024, making Turkey the world’s 11th arms supplier. In July 2026, NATO held its Defence Industry Forum in Ankara, describing it as a high-level event on transatlantic defense production, investment and innovation. That reinforces Ankara’s visibility for companies assessing joint production, localization or supply-chain partnerships.
Still, this sector has higher barriers than ordinary manufacturing. Foreign investors must assess export control rules, public procurement requirements, security clearances, technology-transfer restrictions, sanctions exposure, local content expectations and licensing. Expo representation can also matter, because trade fairs and sector forums are often where supplier networks, procurement channels and government contacts are formed. Government relations and regulatory liaison are central in such sectors, but they must be handled with compliance discipline and documented procedures.
What This Means for Foreign Investors
The Strong Investment Hub program should be read as an invitation to evaluate Turkey, not as a guarantee that every investor will qualify or benefit. The strongest candidates are likely to be multinational groups that can place real regional functions in Turkey, exporters with credible production or service operations, logistics and trade companies managing cross-border flows, technology companies serving foreign customers from Turkey, and industrial investors that can combine tax incentives with organized industrial zones or high-technology programs.
The first step is market entry analysis: identify whether the Turkey case is driven by sales access, cost efficiency, nearshoring, export logistics, talent, incentives or regional headquarters functions. The second is incorporation and corporate structuring, because the qualified service center regime, Istanbul Financial Center participation, industrial registry status and group revenue tests all depend on legal form and operating model. The third is incentives mapping, including Law No. 7582, the investment incentive system, HIT-30 where relevant, free zones, organized industrial zones and sector-specific support.
Legal and tax compliance then becomes the binding constraint. Investors need documentation for transfer pricing, payroll exemptions, foreign-source income, import-export flows, customs treatment, VAT, environmental permits, work permits and social security obligations. Government relations matter where permits, incentives, land, industrial zones, environmental approvals or public-sector customers are involved. Project management matters because the commercial benefit of an incentive is often lost through delays in permits, banking, hiring, customs clearance or secondary legislation interpretation.
For investors looking at Turkey in 2026, Ardıç’s message is best understood as a signal from the industrial base: Ankara wants these incentives to translate into production, exports, technology and qualified employment. Whether that happens will depend less on headline tax rates and more on execution, eligibility, documentation and the ability of foreign companies to build compliant operations on the ground.