The North Rhine-Westphalia- NRW State, performing more than 17% of the total export of Germany is defined as the “Economic Center” of the country, with the high income owned by the population of 18 millions. Combining the advantage brought by its geographic position with a safe transport infrastructure, NRW is also the country’s most foreign investor attracting region. Of NRW, covering an area of 34.092 square kilometres, annual gross income reaches to 543 million Euros. NRW hosts 19 of Germany’s 50 companies with highest turnover and is preferred especially in terms of logistics. With Duisburg, the county’s biggest harbour,120 harbours are connected to each other.
North Rhine-Westphalia has been attracting Turkish investors for a long time. In this process, NRW, the advertisement and investment agency of the state, plays a significant role. NRW.INVEST carries out works with global events and studies to have investments made in this region and its works in Turkey are performed by NRW.INVEST’s Turkish office. Through this office that performs activities led by Dr. Adem Akkaya, Turish manufacturers from many sectors come every year to NRW that currently has a dense Turkish population. Providing the opportunity to invest for 16 more Turkish companies, the region continues to be an attraction center. Parallel to the increase in the importance of Turkish investors in the state year by year, NRW.INVEST carries out more advertisement works in Turkey. The agency had a press conference within the Apparel Conference held by the Turkish Association of Apparel Industrialists (TGSD).
300 Turkish Companies At NRW
In the meeting, the investment advantages of the region was discussed and Istanbul German Consulate General Deputy Consul General Dr. Philipp Deichmann, North Rhine-Westphalia State Undersecretary of Minister of Economy, Energy, Public Works, Settlement and Communication Dr. Günther Horzetzky, General Manager of NRW.INVEST Gmbh Petra Wassner, TGSD Executive Board Member Cevdet Karahasanoğlu, Emre Sarar on behalf of Sarar Group, and NRW.INVEST Manager of Istanbul Representative Agency Dr. Adem Akkaya participated. NRW Undersecretary of Minister of Economy, Energy, Public Works, Settlement and Communication Dr. Günther Horzetzky said that the regional representative agency opened four years ago in Istanbul keeps working successfully.
Emphasizing that around 300 Turkish-origin companies chose Germany for foreign operations, Horzetzky said; “International investments continue to develop globally in a significant dynamism. In this respect, we expect that Turkish economy is benefiting more and more from the globalization process and direct investments increase in parallel with this. And North Rhine-Westphalia will continue to be a reliable partner for Turkish companies in this process.”
Supports Is Provided Until The End Of Process
General Manager of NRW.INVEST GmbH Petra Wassner underlined the importance of region for Turkish companies. Explaining that with their participation to Istanbul Apparel Conference they aim to strengthen their relation with fashion and textile sector, Petra Wassner; “In fashion sector, there is an established and living relation between North Rhine-Westphalia and Turkey for years. In this concept, Turkey stands out among the most important apparel and textile manufacturing countries for the companies in North Rhine-Westphalia. Additionally, we observe that, in recent years, Turkish fashion designers and Turkish brands are interested in North Rhine-Westphalia gradually as an investment and establishment area”.
TGSD Executive Board Member Cevdet Karahasanoğlu spoke at the event and, mentioning both TGSD’s and Turkey’s sectoral growth, pointed out the importance of Germany and NRW in apparel manufacturing. Sarar provided information on Sarar Group’s operations in Germany and NRW and growth strategy.
Close Cooperation Between NRW and Turkey
As of 2011, there are 1.607.161 Turkish citizens in total in Germany and one third of them live in NRW State. Especially thanks to the speed gathered since the beginning of 2000’s, the volume of trade with NRW region has increased. While Turkey’s export to NRW was 2.1 Billion Euros and import was 1.8 Billion Euros, import reached to 4.6 Billion Euros and export reached to 3.2 Billion Euros in 2011. The most important point here is that the growth is more in import for the commercial relations with NRW Region in ten years. It can be seen that while Turkey’s export was more than import in 2000, the opposite situation happened in 2011 and the import figures surpassed export.
The relation of North Rhine-Westphalia State also continues quite actively. NRW’s investments in Turkey were realized as 1.435 Million Euros as of 2011, while Turkey’s investments in this region were at the level of 33 Million Euros. There are 280 Turkish companies resident in the state and textile-related companies such as Sarar, Merinos, Anka, Çilek become prominent among them. Some of the textile companies of direct investment for North Rhine-Westphalia Region are; On-At, Yünsa, Jeel, Reha, Lagos Tekstil, Saray Halı, Tanatar confection. A wide range of other firms operate in many sectors in the region.
