Yabancı Sermaye Şirketlerinin Türkiye'de Gelişimi : En Büyük 175 Yabancı Sermaye Yatırımı Örneğinde İnceleme

Abstract

Türkiye 'ye yabancı sermayenin gelişi Tanzimat dönemine rastlar. Bu dönemde Kapitülasyonlarla elde ettikleri imtiyazlar, yabancı sermayenin Anadolu ' da etkin olmasına neden olmuştur. Cumhuriyet' in ilanı ile yabancı sermaye elinde olan bazı faaliyetler millileştirilmiştir. Bu dönemde yabancı sermayeye karşı bir tutum gösterilmedi ise de Kapitülasyonlarla elde ettikleri hakların devam etmeyeceğini anlayan yatırımcıların kararlarında bir tereddüt hissedilmektedir. Yabancı sermaye yatırımlarını düzenlemek amacı ile bazı kanunların çıkarılması bu döneme rastlar. 6224 sayılı Yabancı Sermayeyi Teşvik Kanunu ve daha sonra bu kanunun bazı maddelerini değiştirmek amacı ile yeni mevzuatlar düzenlenmiştir. Halen yabancı sermaye yatırımları bu kanunlarla düzenlenmektedir. 1990 ' lı yılların başından beri; Türkiye ' nin içinde bulunduğu düzensiz politik ve ekonomik koşullan, yabancı sermayeli şirketlerin yatırım açısından Türkiye ' ye olumsuz bakmalarına neden olmuştur, özellikle bu dönemde Doğu Bloku ülkelerinin atak özelleştirme programları yabancı yatırımcıyı bu ülkelere yönlendirmiştir. Yine bu zamana denk gelen Türkiye ' nin Gümrük Birliği' ndeki belirsiz durumu yabancı yatırımcıyı iyice ürkütmüştür. 1996 yılı Eylül ayı sonu itibarı ile halen Türkiye ' de 3.463 adet yabancı sermayeli firmanın bulunduğu saptanmıştır. Elde edilen verilere dayanarak Türkiye ' de faaliyette bulunan en büyük 175 yabancı yatırımcı incelenmiş ve bunun sonucunda şu karara varılmıştır; bu firmaların toplam sermayesi 84,0 trilyon Türk Lirası' na ulaşmaktadır. Bu firmaların yaptığı yatırımların beşte biri otomotiv sektörüne aittir. Daha sonra ise sırası ile bankacılık, ticaret, gıda, lastik ve demir çelik sanayi gelmektedir. Bu yatırımlar ülkelere göre incelendiğinde ilk sırada birden fazla ülkenin oluşturduğu firmaların geldiği görülür, ikinci ve üçüncü sırada Fransa ve Almanya gelmektedir.

The foreign capital appeared in Turkey at the Tanzimat times and the most important rights have been given to the foreigners was capitalism. in this period fbreigners interested in building railways. Moreover to build and operate of the railways, foreigners have the lands. This situation involved the Ottoman göt into debt from abroad. So Ottoman market opened to the abroad vvithcapitalism. Therefore custum duty have been prevented and it effected the industrial policy. in these years there was no reaction to the foreign capital some of the rigts have been taken for to pay Ottoman debits and foreign investment have been became less. The firs yaer of the republic the most important subject was lost the rights. After republic the goverment made payment for return the foreign capital to lokal capital. The government issued laws for put in order the foreign capital. The first law was in 1930, Save the Turkish Money Law so it was very hard to work for foreign companies by this law. The other law was Foreign Capital' s investment Law in 1951. By this law foreigners had some rights on this subcects are allovvs ; Industry, energy, mining, public works, transportation and tourism. No 6326 Oil Law Controlled the foreign capital in the oil sector. No 6224 The Encouragment of Foreign Capital law is stili in common use. The rights given to the foreigners by this law are ; -Transfer of the profil - Transfer of the debt which is taken from broad - Turn profit to capital - Foreign employee - Save rights with local investor in 1950 - 1977 foreigners thought Turkish Economy would be better than before and get bigger. There was four imporant estabiishment on this subject. Those are Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Technology and The State of Planning Organization. Foreigners had some complant till 1580. These are ; - The approval of the foreign company for their estabiishment taken approxiimatly öne year. - The foreign capitals share have been reduced by goverment.The goverment made some chenges by law no 6224 on 24 th January 1980. The most important change was establish the foreign capital presidency underthe state of the planning organization. OECD countries vvhich are U.S.A., HOLLAND,JAPAN, ENGLAND, GERMANY, FRANCE, investment in Turkey. There was 3643 companies working with foreign capital and their total capital was 100.171 billion TL. 84 of these companies was working on agriculture, 47 on mining, 876 on manifacture, 2456 on utility sectors. 1991 was the first year that cust a shadovv över foreign investors ' pleasure in a long time due to goverment crisis and the early election atmosphere. 1992 and the fist half of 1993 presented an interval of mixed feelings for foreign investors. While they became unconfortable during this period avvaiting the estabiishment of the new goverment and their annoncement of a new program, to be followed by the aplications related to matters in the new program, they also became irritated by the restrain on liberalization to apoint of comming to a standstill, and as such, ali the negative repercussions caused by this situation, hovvever minör, on the activities. Yet, foreign investors were nevertheless able to maintain their plesure in actively being involved in Turkey following the acceleration gained during the sacond half of the 1980 ' s, leading a rapid grovvth, an explosion in demand, opening up to foreign markets, and the positive developments there with. According to foreign investors, Turkey, beyond being öne of the 15 largest markets in the vvorld, was further inhabited by quite a diverse consumer crowd with a high purchasing disposition, a country that was on par with many developed countries sustaing a well - educated ör an easily - trained human resource pool with a liberal foreign investment legislation and a very enticing eco-strategic positioning and peripheral links. The economy was not faring poorly. Due to high inflation, the joke of the times was: " there is a stable unstability in the economy." These were the sentimentsof foreign investors at the end of 1993. Thus, those who already had investments in Turkey stayed and new international establishments were beginning to invest in Turkey. The economic crisis that exploded at the beginning of 1994 sent out shock waves among foreigners as well as everyone else in the country. Those who were content and vvorking a day previously, suddenly found themselves in the worst economic crisis in the history of the Republic. The charm was broken. The delay in the enactment of necessary measures concerning the crisis, the casue for which they were unable to clearly xi determine and thus blamed mismanagement, further aggravated this negative impact. Öne of the finest examples of the state of mind in those days is evident in the astonished complaint of a very trust - wothly and an important general manager of an international company who had been employed in Turkey for 40 years : ' l am seking cash at 150 % interest and can ' t find it.' The failure to place into application the April economic package, save the fiscal, and especially the section related to structural measures, and the daily vvithering of the time gained through fmancial measures, shook the very foundation of foreign investors ' trust in that Turkey would be able to alter the conditions and re - establish economic balance follovving the crisis. And unfortunately, foreign investors stili belive today that there has not been any substantial progress concerning this issue. Turkey had also reached the thresh - old of customs union in the midst of the despairing atmosphere follovving the crisis. The commencement of the customs union time - frame on öne hand and the relative comfort obtained through fiscal measures on the other, warranted foreign investors to have a more positive outlook on the future. Hovvever, as the requirements that had to be fulfilled before the enactment of customs union as well as structural measures were delayed ; the hopeful anticipation began to turn into pessimistic attitutes. The postponement of the customs union decision from 19 December 1994 to 6 Marc 1995, became another shooking blow for the foreign investors and ali attention was focused on the 6 th of March. The relief follovving the taking of the decision on customs union on 6 March and partial economic recovery was this time around, overshadovved by the discouraging political developments vvhich began in the spring and culminated in autumn with the resignation of the Government. AH foreign investors began to wait for the outcome of the December elections as well as for the Europian Parliament' s decision on customs union. Follovving the Parliament' s affirmative vote on customs union, Turkey, hovvever.entered another stage of extremely detrimental political scene vvhich conpletely ruined its image in the eyes of foreign investors. Turkey came out of the election with no single party holding a majority. The Government could not be established for the follovvıing three and a haif moths. Government coalition was unable to appoint an Undersecretary of the Treasury ör a guvernor of the Central Bank for öne and a half months. And, there was yet another government crisis in May. it was not until two months later, at the end of June, that the new government was finally established. AH of these negative developments follovving September 1995, especially the customsunion decision on 1.1.1996 remaining ony a paper, led to foreign investors losing confidence in Turkey 's future and in the anticipation of a new crises, to deferring their investment decisions. Consequently, new investments almost came to a complete halt, existing ones decided to postpone and even suspend their investments. Even today they are having tremendous diffıculties in trying to get their headguarters to accept the necessary capacity increases and renovation investments. in the meantime, despite ali of these negative developments, they are having a difficult time comprehending the high grovvth rates justified probabaly by xii the incrase in imports, in spite of not gaining certainty due to the non- disclosure of the figures. * A cocrete summary of the current situation and the absence of new investors 1. Since early 1990's, while foreign investment increased throughout the worid and may countries that are considered Turkey's competitors acguired significant shares of these investments, Turkey remained at a standstill and evn slipped further back. Especially as a consequence of the very dynamic privatization programs implemented in the former Eastern Bloc countries took Turkey 2s place in the line of priority. 2. New foreign investments in Turkey came to a halting point for the fırst time in 1995 and 1996, and certain foreign investors present in Turkey, have postpened decisions for further investments in the country. The ratio of new foreign investments in total foreign investment has declined rapidly within the last two years, as illustrated by the figures belovv: 1992 35.7% 1993 43.0 % 1994 11.5% 1995 6.5 % * Causes of the standstill in new investments The main reason for this situation is the overall political and economic instability. The failure of governments to take the necessary structural measures to establish a balance in the econoy and to reduce inflation, and most importantly, to realize an extensive tax reform and privatization, resulted in the continuation of instability and the emergence of new economic and political crises. Moreover.foreign investors must operate under conditions of unjust competition in terms of execuation and procedures, and in documentation and taxation in comparison to domestic producers. in addition, the failure to make the required adaptation in the context of customs union, is yet another cause of the current standstill in nevvinvestments. A new crisis that may currently take place now, when the adverse effects of the 1994 crisis are gradually abting, willgravely disturb Turkey's credit. * The consequences of this development for Turkey 1. Today forign investment is considered an indispensable element in the vvorld and in the progress of developing countries, and is invaluable in this aspect. Today, the ratio of foreign investment in total investment displays a strong trend of increase in the rapidly developing countries called " Emerging Markets." 2. Many developing countries that can be considered Turkey's rivals attract huge amounts of foreign investment. 3. This situation creates significiant handicaps in Turkey's competition with these countries. Vtll 4.A possible standstill or reteat in foreign investment can increase the adverse effects of this situation for Turkey, and Turkey might come face to face with the situation of not being able to attract foreign investment for a long time to come. "Measures to reattract investments 1. A reversal of this situation can no longer be achieved only by means of solving the specific and particular problems of foreign capital. It is important to resolve specific problems, yet additionaly: 2. To attract new investors, it is necessary to convey serious messages abroad and to rapidly head for stability. This will be possible only if structural measures, and all the necessary measures, are taken and resolution is displayed in implementation with the aim of a ) taking action to reduce inflation b ) closing budget deficits, led by an extensive tax reform and privatization. 3. The demonstratiton of the fact that all these measures are long term and lasting ones, depends on putting customs union into operation and fulfilling the stipulated in the 6 March decsion. *. Some important tools that may be used Execution of practices lik a ) buid - operate ( or build - operate - transfer ) b ) intensifying and empowering the financial sector c ) opening to foreign investment such fields as higher education, social security, urban development, etc., which are currently closed, or are unattactive due to current legislation for foreign investment d ) speeding up privatization through the additional use of foreign investment to come to Turkey are of utmost impotance today. XIV The foreign investments have a YASED ( Foreign investors Association) Organization in Turkey. Below this organization 's chart to :