Increasing Agricultural Productivity:
Encouraging Foreign Direct Investments in the COMCEC Region
70
Figure 31: Turkey’s Agricultural Production 1992-2011 (US$ Million)
Source: FAOSTAT 2013
For several years, Turkey has actively sought large-scale agricultural investment, especially in
the south-eastern region of Anatolia through active investment promotion targeting among Gulf
Arab investors. In October 2008 a Gulf investment fund made up of Abu Dhabi Investment
House, Gulf Finance House, and Ithmaar Bank signed a $6 billion memorandum of
understanding for agriculture investments in Turkey, and the Director of the Turkish
Investment Agency, ISPAT, went on record saying that Turkey could attract $9 billion in such
investment.94
A 2009 Islamic Development Bank study ranked Turkey one of the two best destinations for
agricultural FDI among the COMCEC Member Countries, the other being Malaysia. As
illustrates, Turkey scores highest on what the report refers to as “suitability” for investment,
meaning the enabling environment for investment, and scores fairly high on what the report
refers to as “ability” to attract investment in agriculture specifically, as indicated by water
resource availability, availability of land for agriculture development, and transport
infrastructure.95 The size of the “bubble” depicts the available land size for FDI in the
agricultural sector (the larger the size of the bubble, the more land is available for agriculture
development). It may be noted that the countries are classified based on an overall availability of
agriculture land, water resources and infrastructure. This does not in any manner suggest that
there are no potentials for agriculture in countries not identified as having high potential.96
From a resource perspective (ability), Indonesia and Kazakhstan are the countries with the
highest ability to attract FDI. Purely in terms of land available for agricultural development, the
largest amounts are available in Kazakhstan and Sudan. From an investor perspective, with a
focus on specific projects, Turkey emerges as arguably the first choice given its very strong
94 Reuters (2009), “Turkey can attract $9b in Gulf Arab funding,” January 25, 2009.
95 A. Suleman (2009), “Fostering FDI in the Agbriculture Sector,” The Pakistan Development Review 48 : 4 Part II (Winter
2009) pp. 821–838
96 Ibid
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