Türkiye’s investor outreach in London has evolved from a one-off promotion exercise into a recurring test of whether improving foreign direct investment figures can be converted into long-duration capital. Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz’s February 2025 meetings with international investors highlighted Türkiye’s economic program, financial infrastructure and reform agenda. By March 2026, Turkish officials were back in London presenting stronger FDI data, but also confronting the questions that matter most to corporate investors: whether disinflation will continue, financing costs will fall, incentives will remain predictable and foreign-owned projects can be executed efficiently.
From an Investor Meeting to a Continuing London Campaign
During his February 27, 2025 visit, Yılmaz met international investors and said Türkiye would remain an investor-friendly center supported by a strong economy, sound financial infrastructure and a commitment to reform. According to Anadolu Agency, the visit also included discussions with UK Trade Envoy Afzal Khan on updating the bilateral free trade agreement, developing the startup and fintech ecosystems, and moving toward a $30 billion bilateral trade target.
The broader program placed private capital at the center of the message. At the London Stock Exchange, Globalturk Capital, the Global Private Capital Association and Türkiye’s Investment Office convened the “2025 Outlook on Private Capital in Türkiye and Environs.” Participants included Yılmaz, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Investment Office President A. Burak Dağlıoğlu and Türkiye Wealth Fund chief executive Arda Ermut.
The choice of London was consequential. The city is a center for private equity, infrastructure finance, venture capital, private credit and emerging-market portfolio management. It is also an important source of capital and corporate expertise for Türkiye. The Investment Office reported that the UK accounted for 6 percent of Türkiye’s FDI inflows in 2024 and remained among the country’s ten largest investor sources.
The campaign continued in 2026. According to the Investment and Finance Office, the March 2026 edition of the London conference brought together about 250 senior executives and 40 speakers and panelists. Discussions covered private equity, venture capital, private credit, entry and exit strategies, and potential listings on Borsa İstanbul and the London Stock Exchange.
This continuity matters. International investors generally distinguish between diplomatic promotion and an investable pipeline. Repeated engagement can help close the information gap, but commitments ultimately depend on project economics, enforceable contracts, regulatory visibility and credible exit routes.
FDI Improved in 2025, With a Better Sectoral Mix
Türkiye attracted $13.1 billion in FDI in 2025, an increase of 12.2 percent from the previous year, according to Central Bank balance-of-payments data summarized by the Investment and Finance Office. Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said inflows excluding real estate reached $10.7 billion, their highest level in a decade.
That distinction is important. Property purchases provide foreign exchange, but investments in operating companies, factories, logistics networks and technology platforms generally make a larger contribution to productive capacity, employment, exports and knowledge transfer. The Investment and Finance Office said approximately 85 percent of 2025 inflows were unrelated to real estate.
Wholesale and retail trade received $3.05 billion, representing 32 percent of inflows. Manufacturing followed with $3.02 billion, or 31 percent, while information and communication attracted $1.31 billion, or 14 percent. Financial and insurance activities received $717 million, and transportation and storage attracted $379 million.
The Netherlands was the largest recorded source, with $2.86 billion, followed by Luxembourg at $1.16 billion and Kazakhstan at $1.14 billion. Such rankings require careful interpretation because Dutch and Luxembourg entities are frequently used as holding or financing vehicles for investments whose ultimate owners are based elsewhere. The UK contributed $313 million and remained part of a diversified group of major sources that included Germany, the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Ireland.
The improvement occurred in a difficult international environment. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s World Investment Report 2026 described international investment as operating in a turbulent period shaped by geopolitical fragmentation, industrial policy and changes in global value chains. Türkiye’s 2025 increase therefore represents a relative improvement, although $13.1 billion remains modest for an economy of its size and industrial ambitions.
Official data from TÜİK show that the economy expanded by 3.7 percent in 2025. Manufacturing accounted for 15.6 percent of GDP, reinforcing the argument that Türkiye’s most credible FDI proposition is not simply access to a large consumer market, but its established production base and connectivity with Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Disinflation Has Progressed, but Macroeconomic Risk Remains
At the 2025 London conference, Yılmaz emphasized that annual inflation had fallen from roughly 75 percent to 42 percent over eight months. The improvement subsequently continued, although more slowly than the government’s earlier program targets implied.
TÜİK reported that consumer inflation declined to 30.89 percent in December 2025. By September 2026, annual inflation had eased further to 29.73 percent, compared with 33.29 percent a year earlier, while monthly inflation was 1.84 percent. Housing and utility costs were still rising by 39.99 percent annually, and transportation prices by 35.10 percent, according to TÜİK’s September release.
For foreign investors, this is more than a macroeconomic indicator. Persistent inflation complicates wage planning, local procurement contracts, rent negotiations, working-capital requirements and the valuation of lira-denominated revenues. Currency depreciation can improve export competitiveness, but it can also raise the cost of imported machinery and intermediate goods while creating accounting volatility.
The Central Bank kept its one-week repo rate at 37 percent in September 2026. It said underlying inflation was decelerating and domestic demand remained weak, while warning that elevated energy prices and geopolitical developments posed upside risks. High rates support disinflation and reserve accumulation, but they also increase domestic borrowing costs and can restrict acquisition financing.
The International Monetary Fund, in its January 2026 Article IV assessment, said Türkiye’s policy stance remained tighter than expected and estimated ex ante real corporate lending rates at around 17 percent in December 2025. The IMF also noted that fiscal policy turned substantially more contractionary during 2025.
These conditions create a differentiated market. Export-oriented manufacturers with foreign-currency revenues, international funding and access to incentives may see opportunity. Consumer-facing businesses dependent on local credit and discretionary demand face a more complicated outlook. Investors therefore need sector-specific scenarios rather than a single top-down view of Türkiye risk.
Industrial Policy Is Redirecting the Investment Proposition
The government’s objective is not merely to increase the volume of FDI. Its 2024-2028 strategy seeks to lift Türkiye’s share of global inflows to 1.5 percent by 2028 while prioritizing climate-related, digital, knowledge-intensive, employment-generating and global value-chain investments.
The strategy is being supported by the HIT-30 program, under which the government committed $30 billion in incentives for electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors, renewable-energy technology and advanced manufacturing. At the 2025 London conference, Kacır said the program had already attracted more than $7 billion in strategic investment commitments. He also described a $5 billion mobility package intended to increase annual electric-vehicle production capacity to at least one million units.
Türkiye’s revised incentive framework offers corporate tax reductions, value-added tax and customs-duty exemptions, social-security support, land allocation, financing assistance and, for selected large projects, negotiated packages. The official Incentives Guide says 432 incentive certificates were issued to international investors in 2025, covering TRY109.5 billion in planned investment and an estimated 16,700 jobs.
However, incentive availability should not be confused with automatic project eligibility. The effective value of support depends on the legal entity undertaking the investment, location, sector classification, technology level, import content, employment commitments and compliance with certificate conditions. Investors may also need environmental approvals, land-use permissions, construction licenses, energy connections and sector-specific authorizations.
This is where investment incentives, government relations and project management become operational rather than promotional functions. A package must be modeled against realistic cash flows, documented before expenditure occurs where required, and monitored throughout implementation. Failure to align procurement and construction decisions with the approved incentive certificate can reduce or delay benefits.
The UK Relationship Extends Beyond Capital Raising
UK-Türkiye economic relations provide a practical foundation for the London outreach. The existing free trade agreement has applied preferential treatment since January 2021, protecting much of the goods trade that might otherwise have been disrupted by Brexit.
UK government figures show that bilateral trade reached £28.5 billion in 2025, up from £18.6 billion in 2021. Türkiye exported £17.8 billion of goods and services to the UK, while UK exports reached £10.6 billion, according to the UK Department for Business and Trade’s market data.
Negotiations to modernize the agreement have sought to expand coverage into services, investment, digital trade and agriculture. Those areas would be particularly relevant to financial services, fintech, professional services, healthcare, creative industries and digital platforms. The process had not been completed as of the Turkish Trade Ministry’s May 2026 economic outlook, so investors should avoid pricing anticipated provisions into projects before a final text takes effect.
Companies using Türkiye as a regional manufacturing and distribution base must also account for rules of origin, customs classifications, product standards and the interaction between the UK agreement and Türkiye’s customs union with the European Union. Import-export facilitation is therefore central to plant location, sourcing and supply-chain design, not a downstream administrative issue.
What This Means for Foreign Investors
The London meetings demonstrate sustained official interest in attracting private capital, while the 2025 data show that productive FDI has begun to respond. They do not remove the need for careful execution.
A prospective investor should first conduct a market-entry assessment that tests demand, competitors, pricing, currency exposure and export potential under several inflation and exchange-rate scenarios. The choice between acquisition, joint venture, distribution arrangement and greenfield investment should follow that analysis.
Company incorporation and corporate structuring must then address ownership, governance, financing, dividend distribution, transfer pricing and applicable treaty provisions. Legal and tax compliance requires continuing attention because high inflation, regulatory changes and incentive-linked obligations can materially alter expected returns.
For industrial projects, site selection should be integrated with investment-incentive eligibility, logistics access, labor availability, energy supply and permitting. Government relations can help coordinate legitimately with the Investment and Finance Office, ministries, municipalities and regulatory authorities, while project management is needed to keep land acquisition, approvals, construction, equipment imports and commissioning on a coherent timetable.
Trade fairs and industry events can also serve as disciplined market testing. Expo representation can identify distributors, customers and local partners before a permanent commercial platform is established. Import-export planning should begin at the feasibility stage, particularly where the project depends on preferential tariffs or imported capital equipment.
An FDI advisory firm such as fdiconsultancy.com supports these interconnected workstreams, from market entry and incorporation to incentives, compliance, regulatory liaison and on-the-ground implementation. The central lesson from Türkiye’s London campaign is that investor interest is rising, but capturing the opportunity depends on converting national policy promises into a legally sound, financially resilient and operationally executable project.