Saudi Arabia's Advanced Petrochemical Company and Turkey's Bayegan agreed Thursday to invest $1 billion in a polypropylene production facility in Adana-?skenderun on the southern Turkish coast. The plant is expected to have a 500,000-ton polypropylene production capacity and the project will employ 500,000 people, Hürriyet Daily News reported Friday. Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications including packaging and labeling and textiles. "I congratulate all of us on this investment which we can view as the first to be inspired by our new incentive scheme," said Economy Minister Zafer Ca?layan at the joint meeting between the two parties. Ca?layan said 200 Turkish businessmen had invested in Saudi Arabia so far and that 275 Saudi firms had invested $1.5 billion in Turkey. He said he anticipated these investments would keep growing. Meanwhile, there is increasing interest in the Turkish real estate sector among buyers from the Middle East. Investors from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are all lining up to own property in Turkey. However, under current laws, it is not possible for foreign nationals to purchase a home in the country, yet due to change if new rules are approved by parliament. Environment and Urban Development Minister Erdogan Bayraktar said earlier “the regulations contained in the bill are now even more important, because some buyers have already made down payments in provinces such as Istanbul and Bursa.” It is not only residential property that is attracting investment from overseas, with a flood of capital from the UAE into the Turkish hotel sector. Rotana Hotels and the Viceroy Hotel Group have unveiled plans to construct resorts in Turkey.
