Turkey and Dubai Enter Real Estate Investment Partnership

Turkey and Dubai Enter Real Estate Investment PartnershipJust days after the European Union and Turkey finally agreed to enter into talks for Turkey’s EU accession process, Dubai has extended a hand of ‘friendship and cooperation’ to Turkey and committed to an extended real estate investment program worth five billion US dollars.

This financial commitment from Dubai is the first foreign investment offered to Turkey since an agreement with the EU was reached and is therefore seen as highly significant.  It is also the first in an estimated 1.2 trillion dollars of inward investment that Turkey is attempting to attract from the Gulf States.

The real estate investment partnership is between Dubai Holding’s Dubai International Properties and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality with the majority of the five billion dollars likely to be invested into projects in Istanbul’s thriving property sector. 

The investment partnership agreement was signed by Kadir Topbas, the Mayor of Istanbul and Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.  The signing ceremony took place in the presence if the Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Dubai Holding CEO Mohammed al-Qarqawi.

At the signing ceremony Dubai’s Crown Prince insisted in a statement that the financial commitment was not about ‘investment’; rather it was about ‘cooperation, friendship and affection’.  In response to al Maktoum’s generous statement Erdogan referred to the Crown Prince as his friend and brother and advised journalists and fellow dignitaries at the ceremony that the city of Dubai was one of inspiration to Istanbul.

According to Dubai sources this investment into the Turkish real estate sector is likely to be the first of many financial partnerships established between Dubai and Turkey and that future investment focus will also be centered on the tourism sector, energy, communications and agriculture.

On Tuesday the 11th of October the CEO of Dubai Holding and the Mayor of Istanbul are planning to hold a press conference to define the investment in detail by clearly outlining which projects the money will be invested into. 

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