UK ranked highest third in terms of paid capital in the list of countries whose real persons or legal entities established FDI companies in Turkey as of June 30, 2003, until when establishing an FDI company was subject to an auhtorisation (Netherlands and Germany were the two contries which had the highest share in FDI capital in Turkey as of this date).

Between year 1980 and July 2003, the cumulative amount of authorised FDI capital surmounted $ 35 billion.

After July 2003, the FDI rules were relaxed much and

-Both Turkish and FDI companies started being treated equally.
-Bureuacracy with regard to establishing or acquisition of a company was minimised,
-Legislative changes made work permits of foreign personnel more transparent,
-The Government committed itself to remove all barriers infront of FDI companies and to make the investment environment more attractive,
-Boosted expectations with regard to Turkey’s full EU membership upon the EU’s decision on starting the negotiations as of October 3rd, 2005 and fast recovery in Turkish economy in the last five years enabled Turkey to draw the attention of the potential investors.

As a result, the total number of FDI companies increased by 178% in the 4.5 year period upto December 2007 whereas in the same period, the number of FDI companies with UK-based capital increased by 343%.

On the other hand, total UK direct investments in Turkey soared to USD 688 million in 2007 from USD 628 million in 2006.