Turkey is one of the world's most rapidly industrializing markets. Our economy has growing at a 4 percent per annum for the past 10 years. Turkey is the 6th largest Economy in Europe and the 17th in the World, attracting Foreign Domestic Investment (FDI) of $30 billion in 2005-6.

Turkey’s major trading countries are Germany, France, Italy and UK. UK is one of the best trade partners of Turkey. The volume of UK-Turkey bilateral trade reached $12 billion in 2006 and the UK is Turkey’s 2nd largest export market. British firms cover a wide range of sectors, with over 41 British companies investing in Turkey, such as BP, Shell, Vodafone, Unilever (UK), HSBC, Aviva, Tesco, and Cadbury Schweppes.

Exports from Turkey to UK increased to $ 8,626 million in 2007 compared to $6.814 million in 2006. With this growth in trade, UK became the second biggest importer from Turkey in the last year. It is also the 7 th biggest exporter from Turkey with a total of $5.471 million dollars in 2007. The chart below shows the increase in export and import between Turkey and UK in the last 10 years.

Turkey has an annual trade volume of $ 277 billion in 2007 and the annual trade volume between UK and Turkey surmounted $ 14.1 billion and it is expected to increase in 2008.

There has been a considerable increase in the number of companies with foreign capital in Turkey since the “Foreign Direct Investment Law” came into force in June 2003. Those established between this date and the end of June 2007 shows an increase of 180 % compared to those before June 2003. The 10,720 of 18,803 foreign companies which are operating in Turkey or exporting/importing from Turkey have EU origins. After Germany, UK lead the Turkish market with 1,831 companies.

Turkey is a bridge between East and West having close ties with the former Soviet Union countries and the advantage of geographical proximity to Middle East and is a potential base for foreign companies for future expansion to Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa. With the existence of a highly dynamic private sector and continuing industrialization, Turkey will always be a good market for foreign entrepreneurs. Also the ongoing EU negotiations give rise to a lot of business opportunities in Turkey.