YASED follows up the below issues as a priority within the main framework of the improvement of the investment environment in Turkey and providing and sustaining an investment environment which is in compliance with free market and competition principles, competitive, efficient and predictable.
Improvement of the Investment Environment in Turkey
• Unregistered Economy: We consider that the measures to be taken urgently and decisively for preventing the unregistered economy, which almost punishes the law-abiding companies, and which we consider as the priority problem of Turkey, will significantly contribute to the healthy functioning of the Turkish economy. We believe that aiming for a Turkey, where income distribution is more fair, tax basis is wider, and unfair competition is prevented, by fighting against unregistered economy is a priority.
• Legal Assurance: Assuring predictability in legal regulations and clarification of the rules in a way that companies will not hesitate about their obligations, rights and the results of the implementations are important for investors. We believe it is essential to; set the rules in a way so that they are clear and understandable, and do not include any content that would require subjective interpretations, which lead to discriminative implementations, and secure transparency so that the executive bodies put these rules into practice without interpretation and as laid down clearly in the law. When making amendments to legislation, providing the necessary mechanisms to prevent losses in terms of the rights of the related parties and avoiding restrospective applications will increase the legal assurance for investors. Investors, having a long-term viewpoint, should be able to know and foresee the rules of the environment in which they are going to operate.
• Taxes and Incentives: We believe that switching to a competitive and efficient tax and incentive system is a key criterion for attracting FDI. Steps to be taken for restructuring the existing tax system into a simple, fair, transparent and clear-cut one, will be an undertaking towards impeding informality, and will receive support from all investors - foreign and domestic alike. Development of incentive mechanisms that will attract high value-added FDI, which will increase our country’s employment, capital and know-how levels, and streamlining of the tax system are the key elements of this undertaking.
• Employment and Education: Lowering the burden of social insurance premiums and taxes on employment and taking into consideration the foreign language and vocational training requirements for raising the qualified workforce required by investors are the priorities for strengthening the advantageous position of Turkey on the global arena, regarding FDI inflows (and particularly for greenfield investment). In global competition, enhancing the qualitative advantages of the workforce before its quantitative advantages are among the priority goals.
• Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights: Integration to the international community is not attainable, unless international standards are adopted. Infringement of intellectual and industrial property rights damage Turkey’s prestige considerably, and cause unfair competition. Adoption of international standards on the subject of laws and regulations, and above all their implementation should be set as one of the targets. It is essential to take measures for the protection of data exclusivity, copyright violations, trademark infringements and counterfeiting, where problems are being faced with. The accomplishment of a judicial reform is extremely important for the protection of these rights.
• R&D Investments: In the global competition environment, one of the keys factors behind the preference of some countries as R&D attraction centers, lies in the incentives granted. The increases made in recent years in the funds allocated for R&D incentives from the budget; the continuation and widespreading of the these; the development of Turkey’s R&D capacity are extremely important for attracting high value-added investments to this area.
European Union
Progresses to be achieved in other priority issues will serve as developments that will open way for Turkey during the EU membership talks. Accomplishment of all these developments, and Turkey’s success in ranking permanently among the top investment locations of the world, depends on the success of the talks to be carried out with the EU for full membership. It is extremely important to protect the precedence of the issue on the agenda and not losing pace in the efforts given for the negotiation process and lobbying activities.