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Toh Han Shih

Turkey is wooing mainland China and Hong Kong, seeking billions of dollars in investment for its railway, energy, infrastructure, property and other sectors, as it aims to put previous disputes with Beijing behind it.
The Turkish government has set ambitious investment targets for 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. 
Between now and 2023, the Ankara leadership hopes to attract US$130 billion in energy investments and US$23.5 billion in railway investments from all over the world, said Didem Engin, chief executive of Turkish advisory firm Renova Economics and Investment Consulting. 
'By 2023, Turkey wants to build 10,000 kilometres of high-speed rail,' Engin said. 
'From now till 2023, the Turkish government wants 500 kilometres of normal railway to be renewed every year. China is a very important country to share its experience in high-speed railways.'  
Other targets in the next decade include the construction of three new airports, a third bridge for Istanbul and 16 logistics centres. 
By 2019, the country aims to have at least one of its ports among the 10 busiest in the world and to command a total container capacity of 32 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for all Turkish ports, Engin said. 
'Hong Kong companies can share their experience in port management with Turkey,' she said.
In energy, Turkey aims to increase its installed power capacity from 54,000 megawatts to 125,000MW by 2023, its natural gas storage capacity from 2.6 billion cubic metres to five billion cubic metres, and the proportion of its renewable energy usage from less than 10 per cent now to 30 per cent, she said. 
'We want to build nuclear plants. China, Russia and South Korea are interested in this,' she said. 
In November, China Tianchen Engineering  signed an agreement to construct one billion cubic metres of underground natural gas storage facilities in Turkey. The project, estimated to cost US$640 million, was China's biggest investment in Turkey at that time, Bloomberg reported. 
Housing is another area of development, because of two earthquakes late last year that shook the east of the country. Engin said 7.56 million residential flats would be built between now and 2023. 
'Hong Kong companies are strong in real estate. [They] can take part in real estate projects,' she said.
Sino-Turkish relations deteriorated in 2009, when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the plight of Uygurs in China as 'a kind of genocide'. The Uygurs share linguistic, ethnic and religious ties with Turkey. 
'Relations between Turkey and China will be stronger than ever, though in the past there were some tensions,' Engin said. Vice-President Xi Jinping visited the country in February, and Erdogan reciprocated in April, the first trip to China by a Turkish leader in 27 years, she said. 
Despite Erdogan's controversial remarks in 2009, Chinese imports soared from US$12.68 billion in 2009 to US$21.69 billion last year, while Turkish exports to China jumped from US$1.6 billion to US$2.47 billion. 
Turkey's exports to Hong Kong nearly doubled from US$229.17 million in 2009 to US$$425.56 million last year. However, imports from Hong Kong fell from US$100.11 million to US$99.8 million. 
In the first quarter, China overtook Germany to become the second-largest source of Turkey's imports, behind Russia, Engin said. 
'The issue with the Turkish economy is that we import more than we export. That is the reason the Turkish government is trying to lower the import portion,' she said.
The prospects for Chinese investment in Turkey are very good, said Ben Simpfendorfer, founder of Silk Road Associates, a Hong Kong consultancy focusing on countries lying along the route from China to Turkey. 
'We're talking about an economy that can be compared to Brazil, a large industrialised economy with access to the European Union,' he said.
Turkey has substantial resources, reasonable labour costs and free-trade agreements with the European bloc, Simpfendorfer said. 
In 2010, Turkey attracted US$9.1 billion in foreign direct investment, far below the US$20 billion it gained in 2008, before the onset of the global financial crisis, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development. Foreign direct investment in Turkey reached US$16 billion last year, figures from the central bank of Turkey showed.
$4.96b 
Turkey's current-account deficit in April, down from US$6.12 billion a month earlier, according to the central bank on Monday




Ankara eyes investment from HK, mainland China