By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey received $511 million in net international direct investment this February, the Economy Ministry announced Wednesday.

In February, the amount of net foreign direct investment (FDI) rose by nearly 12 percent year-on-year, from $457 million in the same month of 2017, while the amount was $602 million in the first month of this year.

In terms of equity investment -- the main component of overseas direct investment -- direct inflow to Turkey stood at $280 million, with 71.4 percent of this amount coming from the European Union.

Direct capital inflow from EU countries increased by 40.8 percent month-on-month, with the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany as the top three sources of capital inflow.

"In February, $98 million of the total equity capital entry was in the manufacturing sector," the ministry said, followed by the hotels/restaurants sector with $80 million and the transport/communication/storage sector with $44 million.

Official data showed that a total of 651 new foreign-backed companies were founded in Turkey -- including eight branch offices -- while another nine domestic companies benefited from overseas participants in the second month of the year.

As of February, 60,280 companies with international capital were operating in Turkey -- 37.7 percent of them linked to EU member states.

Nearly 23,000 of these companies are operating in the retail and wholesale trade sector. The other major sectors are real estate rental and business activities with 9,783 firms, and manufacturing with 7,115 companies.

Official figures also showed that the Economy Ministry issued 16 incentive certificates in February for investment projects of international investors.

The ministry said the investment value of these certified projects -- within the framework of FDI legislation and the incentives regime -- reached $4.76 billion in February.

Last year, Turkey attracted $10.93 billion in net international direct investment, $7.44 billion of which was equity investment inflow, and 339 incentive certificates for projects valued at $25.6 billion were issued by the Economy Ministry.