ABSTRACT
The distribution of countries providing international construction services, as well as those seeking them, is distinctly asymmetrical. The simple explanation is that certain types of projects are extremely complex. Firms that develop these frontier capabilities typically come from the developed world, from countries where investment in research and innovation is strong. Lesser players are also highlighted: Australia, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. The media tends to portray Turkey as a nation on the fringes of the European Union, whose drawn-out efforts to join have been compromised by its underdevelopment, Muslim identity and political slide toward authoritarianism. Turkey’s first off-shore construction project was in Libya in 1972. Turkey’s progress and accompanying reforms, however, have been uneven. Turkey continues to suffer from an ineffectual bureaucracy, rigid labor laws, ambiguous taxation laws, a large informal economy and corruption.
