Business in Turkey: Current Position and Perspectives on the Future

01 December 2016

Last year was a challenging year for Turkey, with a variety of geopolitical issues and the attempted military coup dominating the news cycle. Despite this, Turkey remains very much open for business for the Firm and its clients. As we enter 2017, the Firm remains at the center of this important and vibrant legal marketplace, under the leadership of our Head of Turkey Zeynep Çakmak and our partners in Istanbul.

As such, "Business in Turkey: Current Position and Perspectives on the Future" was the theme of a timely and well-received keynote event and cocktail evening hosted by Çakmak-Gökçe Avukatlık Bürosu.

The event, on December 1, was attended by 200 people, who gathered to hear the thoughts of a panel composed of two top Turkish business leaders who are also clients and good friends of the Firm: Mr. Sani Şener, CEO of TAV Airports Holding and Construction (TAV), and Ms. Canan Özsoy, CEO of General Electric Turkey (GE). The pair were joined by the well-known economist Dr. Murat Üçer.

Dr Üçer outlined Turkey’s economic performance since 2012, assessed 2016 and made some predictions for 2017—a talk that was particularly enjoyed by clients. The overall picture looks good for business, not least for TAV, a global airports operator and contractor. TAV came to prominence with the first Istanbul Airport privatization in the early 1990s, and now, as a public company, is the world’s biggest airport operator and airport contractor (with more than $19 billion of projects completed).

Similarly, Turkey is a significant and growing market for GE across all of its businesses—healthcare, aviation, power (especially after the acquisition of Alstom) and industrial systems. It is at the forefront of digitalizing its products and services in all of these sectors.