Global investment challenges: a Turkish view

Abstract

Current OFDI climate imposes important challenges to the global investment chains. In the wake of 2008 global economic crisis, the nature of FDI flows globally might nurture conflict of interest between developed and developing countries. Areas of contention appears to concentrate around the issues of sustainability, labor standards and protection of environment. Security concerns should also be added onto the list. There also exists a debate on the viability of bilateral agreements in an increasingly multi-polar world. In the absence of standard contracts to resolve conflicts of interests between nations, corporations and individuals, FDI atmosphere has become more problematic in creating equitable and sustainable world, in reducing poverty, in providing better income distribution and in creating worthy employment. Balancing out environmental regulations and protecting the interest of private capital also imposes important challenge. This paper focuses henceforth, on the responses developed for these global challenges within the Turkish context. Turkey’s close proximity to more developed European markets via customs union agreement with the EU, its cultural and historical ties to Central Asia, Caucasus and Balkans, and increasing presence within the African continent as a donor country in conjunction with its OFDI, renders it an interesting case study. This paper aims to investigate this rather understudied area by using a political economy framework.