A Research on the Mediating Role of Foreign Direct Investments of Logistics Sector on the Relationship between Global Competitiveness Index with Gross Domestic Product and Exports

Exports, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are very important concepts for countries to achieve their strategic, political and economic goals and to have stable growth. The Global Competitiveness Index publishes by the World Economic Forum also has a great impact on the decisions of foreign investors and provides comparative information to investors on different issues about the country where investment is desired. At this study, the relationship between Türkiye's global competitiveness index ranking with exports and GDP data and whether foreign direct investments in the logistics sector have a mediating role at this relationship is investigated. SAS software package is used to analyse the data and Structural Equation Model is established. In this framework, it is determined that Türkiye's global competitiveness index ranking affects the logistics sector foreign direct investments and GDP. It is also concluded that there is a significant relationship between export values and GDP data. It has been determined that foreign investments in the logistics sector have no effect on exports and GDP data, and the ranking of the index has no effect on export values. In addition, FDI in the logistics sector have a mediating role in the relationship between the global competitiveness index and GDP but doesn't have a mediating role relationship between exports and GDP and between the global competitiveness index and exports. Within the framework of the results obtained, it is important to increase the gross domestic product by achieving a good ranking in the global competition index in terms of Türkiye's goals of becoming one of the top ten economies and becoming a logistics hub, and for this purpose, it is important to focus on foreign direct investments in the logistics sector.