By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey received nearly $2.2 billion in net international direct investment from January till March, the Economy Ministry announced Thursday.

In the first quarter of this year, the sum of net foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 28.1 percent, year-on-year, from some $3 billion in the same period of 2017.

According to the official data, the amount of net FDI the country received was $607 million in January, $467 million in February, and over $1 billion in March.

Regarding equity investment, which is the leading item on the overseas direct investment account, direct inflow to Turkey was some $1.4 billion, with 66.6 percent of this amount coming from the European Union.

In the first quarter, Austria ($315 million), the Netherlands ($216 million) and Germany ($55 million) were the top three European sources of direct capital inflow.

"In January-March this year, $593 million of the total equity capital entry was in the energy sector," the ministry said, followed by the manufacturing sector with $271 million and the financial intermediation sector with $150 million.

A total of 1,920 new foreign-backed firms were established in Turkey including 17 branch offices plus 27 local companies benefited from international participants in the first quarter of the year.

As of March, 60,938 companies with overseas capital were operating in Turkey -- 37.5 percent of them linked to the EU.

More than 23,000 of these companies are operating in the retail and wholesale trade sector, while the other sizable sectors are real estate rental and business activities (9,883 firms), and manufacturing (7,178 companies).

In the three-month period, Turkey's Economy Ministry issued 75 incentive certificates for investment projects of international investors, according to the official figures.

The ministry noted the investment value of these certified projects -- within the framework of FDI legislation and the incentives regime -- reached $5.7 billion from January to March.

Last year, Turkey attracted $10.94 billion in net international direct investment, $7.45 billion of which was equity investment inflow, and the Economy Ministry issued 339 incentive certificates for projects valued at $25.6 billion.