The Republic of Turkey – Open for Business

Contributed by Kimroy and Sherika Trott-Bailey.

“Merhaba!, awhhhhh maşallah Cok Guzel!” coos several senior Turkish women as they kiss and hold the hands of our one year old daughter Keilah Trott-Bailey. This baby doting is a daily occurrence for us here in Turkey as we traverse the streets among the locals. The coos are quickly followed up by requests for pictures of our beautiful and petite baby girl. It is our great pleasure to walk the local streets of the different regions of Turkey, whether we are on the countryside in Trabzon, the bustling streets of Istanbul, the modern young city of Izmir, the charming capital Ankara, solar hotspot of Mersin or if we are just being tourists in the scenic parts of Antalya such as Lara and Alanya. There is so much to see business and pleasure wise.

After living in Turkey for a few years and traveling across the country, we quickly realized just how much this country has going for it. You see the more you travel and truly experience places, the keener your business sense becomes. Especially when you travel and God opens your eyes to see things clearer and brighter; for what they really are. Here are the things we saw in Turkey that make this country far superior to many ‘great nations’ even greater in many aspects than the United States. Though ironically the Turks do not realize this and many Turk’s long for America’s shores.

1. Excellent Location – Mükemmel
Location, location, location. The Istanbul Ataturk International Airport is the world’s 2nd busiest hub. Our family can hop between our Barcelona office to the west and Hong Kong to the east in about 8 hours from Istanbul. Better yet the Kimroy Bailey Group can ship products from the Bosphorous harbor in Istanbul to over 90 European, African and Asian countries all in less than 3 days. Turkey is a logistics gem waiting to be truly harnessed by investors who are serious about reaching customers.

2. Natural Beauty, History & Culture – This country has all three and more to spare. It’s all around you, it’s in your face. For example, you have 1000-year-old monuments such as Hadrian’s Gate, Hidrilik Tower, Alanya Castle, Red Tower as the backdrop for fast food joints and local Turkish businesses. In Istanbul alone, there are new discoveries and excavations occurring across from the busy train station in Kadikoy. Turkey is a transcontinental nation straddling eastern Europe and western Asia with cultural connections to ancient Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empire. Turkey has connections to the time of Jesus Christ and his disciples-I mean just imagine that Christ once walked along the River Euphrates. This makes it a gem for Tourism investments and if as a savvy investor your looking for uncharted areas of Turkey to invest in, (other than the typical areas such as Istanbul and Antalya) try Trabzon.

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3. Strong Local Talents – Büyük Yerel Yetenekler

The Turks people are talented engineers, interior designers, chefs, and manufacturers. From our own experience here in the country we have realized that you do not need to search to find great talent. Their young teenagers are required to learn English and along with the other standard subjects in school which is crafting a new generation of many young upcoming bilingual Turks.

There are talented chefs who can literally transform a raw piece of chicken to a succulent delight in a matter of minutes. Turkey is filled with a lot of the old world skills of baking, welding, cheese making, and farming. Turkish sweets known as Turkish delights are famous the world over. There are Interior designers and skilled dressmakers, a walk down any random street in the metro of Antalya and you are sure to come across stores with fancy drapes and other textiles, carpets, wedding dresses, women’s clothing and unique local handbags that can stand up to any fancy catwalk or runway show. If you’re lucky you’ll find the dressmaker behind her machine with a team member or two working their magic. Just a random walk down the streets of Trabzon, Istanbul, and Antalya and you’ll find local furniture stores touting stylish bamboo furniture made right here in Turkey or the more ornate tufted furniture so favored by wealthy westerners in Los Angeles and Manhattan or the Bourgeoisie in France. Talent in Turkey is all around, all around.

4. Strong Foreign Talent

The Kimroy Bailey Group of Companies chose Turkey as one of our Global headquarters due to its diversity and access to strong multilingual foreign talent. This allows us to provide customer support in over 23 different languages. Turkey is a hub for well-educated migrants from Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Netherlands, Pakistan etc. These persons come to the country, not to sit and wait for welfare but to apply their expertise, their ability to speak their mother tongue along with English and Turkish. If you are serious about global expansion and need talented individuals to facilitate global trade Turkey is a no-brainer. As a result, a number of call center’s and customer support agencies call Turkey home.

5. Turkey has an abundance of Export Potential – İhracatın bolluğu Potansiyel

Labour. Textiles, Quality goods, commodities such as oranges, bananas, boron, drapes, gold, furniture, clothing all at a higher quality than the majority of Chinese goods that floods the Western World are abundant here in Turkey. Large Kitchen equipment, industrial appliances, wedding dresses, tiles, springs, leather, and fur are all easily accessible and exportable for a determined investor.
In Turkey finding a distributor of industrial appliances, industrial kitchen supplies, water heaters, and production machinery is as easy as finding a fast food joint in the United States.

6. Turkey has the world’s Largest deposits of the mineral called Boron

Speaking at the signing ceremony between Turkey’s Eti Maden and China’s Dalian Jinma to jointly establish a high-tech facility to produce boron carbide, a valuable material widely used in the defense industry, Minister Albayrak focused on the benefits of boron carbide. “Boron carbide is worth 2,000 times more than regular boron. A ton of boron is worth USD $200, but once it is processed into a high-tech product, the value increases exponentially to nearly USD $400,000,” according to Minister Albayrak. (Source Daily Sabah, retrieved on Jan 17 2019)

While the Turks and the Chinese may be using the boron carbide for tactical vehicles, helicopters, aircraft, light armored vehicles, and bulletproof vests,  we prefer to delve into the other more joyful uses for the mineral. Pro31 Global Shipping and logistics research team are keen on using the material for sleeker, lighter and stronger aerial transportation vehicles to transport Prov31 goods and cargo and maintain their standard 3-day global shipping to anywhere in the world. The material will be used for building lightweight ships, aerial vehicles such as multi-copters, cargo planes and unmanned drones for autonomous delivery of customer packages. The Republic of Turkey is accountable for for73% of the world’s boron reserve according to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources website. (Retrieved from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on January 17 Website https://www.enerji.gov.tr/en-US/Pages/Boron). Processing raw materials is a great way to add a significant markup and retrieve a quick return on your investment. If you are interested in other minerals found here in Turkey you can consider the exploration and processing of Gold, Natural Stones, Trona, Uranium, and Thorium.

7. Excellent media programs –

The Turkish drama series are riveting and fresh. A feast for any woman’s eyes and emotions. Series like Yasak Elma, Zuhal Topal’la Sofrada, is great content that can be exported to the west by simply translating the subtitles for these programs or adding voiceovers in local languages. We have been able to deliver the Step by Step Solar online training course in 23 different languages using media production and professional talents from Turkey.

8. In Turkey the price is RIGHT – Türkiye’de fiyat doğru

This is our absolute FAVORITE, Cheap food, cheap real estate, and affordable labor is all here. Have no fear, there is room for every size investor in Turkey from the small investor with a few thousand to the biggest with a couple billion. We know cheap is relative. But let us break it down for you with an example. There are people who purchase a commercial property at USD 50,000 in prime tourist locations and only operate for eg. a restaurant or hotel for 3-6 months out of the year during the peak tourist season. Hey, even the really small man with a little food cart can make a good living during peak tourist seasons especially if he or she is ambitious. Hey and if you’re a real hustler with a tiny budget, you don’t even need all of that, just get your e-visa, rent a cheap apartment and sell your interesting talents or goods on the streets of Antalya. Just make sure its something truly worthwhile and reasonably priced/ No tourist wants to come to Turkey and still feel like their paying at home prices.

As a Global operator, we can boldly state that setting of out 23 major global offices Turkey is one of the most cost-effective locations to set up and operate when all the above perks are considered. We are absolute foody and Turkey is the land of great freshly prepared, Kebaps, dürüm, döners, Pide, Lamachuan, Iskender, fresh bread right from the bakery, yogurts, olives, fruits and vegetables, jams all with a nice cold Ayran. You can have breakfast like an Ottoman with 4 breads for 1 TL each, 12 eggs for 4 TL, a 1kg of sugar for 3 TL, Cay/Tea for 2TL, Fruits and Vegetables Mix (Servings of Cucumber, Tomatoes, Olives, Tangerine, Apples Oranges, Eggplant, Figs, Apricot, Pomegranates) all fo 25 TL and the additional stuff such as the cheese, butter, Nutella, for as little as 30 TL all at your local BIM, A-101, Migros and Sok. With 100 TO you can comfortably feed 4 adults for breakfast, thats the equivalent of only USD $20 or USD $5 per person eating like kings. Türkiye, çok güzel!

Turkey is a great place to invest, for access to Europe, Asia and for a serious global footprint. In Turkey the price is Right, the opportunities are Rich and the time is Ripe!