Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Turkish Dairy News SATURDAY,MARCH8,1997 ".......
Euro-Mediterranean conference focuses on Turkey
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London- Turkish Dally News
• Turkey has been one of the major'focuses of the
Euro-Mediterranean conference held in London
March 6-7. Speakers expressed that the country
has a great capacity for foreign investment and
added that political instability was holding back
many investors and was causing hesitation.
Stanley Fisher, first deputy managing director
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said
high inflation and imbalances in budged deficits
were creating problems for the country with a
huge potentials. ;
Sir William Ryrie, vice chairman of the ING
Baring Holdings Limited, UK, said Turkey's
Islamists had discouraged investments recently.
Sir William, after speaking of Turk~y' s huge
=pd(entiäl,said:that u~'{estors had. started taconsidt"
er Turkey as 'high risk' country due to political
turmoil and high inflation.
Meanwhile Rahmi Koç, chairman of the Koç
Holding, said the most dramatic impact of the
customs union Turkey had signed with the EU
was the fierce competition felt in the domestic
market.
"This caused a drop in market share and profit
margins. As a result, mdustry was unable to açcumulate
the required resources," he pointed out.
After reminding that business and industry needed
larger then ever investments to be able to compete
in such a situation, Koç said this had caused
Imbalances of financial resources, which could be
remedied by helping business and industry financially
and by allowing them to export to compensate
for the lost domestic market.
He then went on and criticized the EU for not
being generous to Turkey regarding financial
assistance:
"While Spain receives $7 billion and Portugal
and Greece receive $3-4 billion per annum,
Turkey was offered a meagre $500 million per
annum over a period of five years, making (in
total) $2.5 billton. Moreover, even this negligible
sum was not released due to political pressure."
According to Koç, there is no adoption of the
necessary macro-economic policies due to political
instability in Turkey.
"As a result of these reasons, Turkey's foreign
trade deficit went up from $14 billion to $20 billion,
reaching 10 percent of the GNP," Koç
added.
He pointed out that the 7 percent growth rate
experienced by the country was due to the
dynamism of the private sector in Turkey.
"However unless some clear cut economic
measures are taken to boost exports, I do not
think that this growth rate can be sustained," Koç
warned.
He.expressed.that.Turlœy'-, .case should,be an
example for other Mediterranean countries. "As
we see in the case of Turkey, other Mediterranean
countries cannot really be integrated into the
European Union if they do not take the necessary
economic measures and if they are not financially
assisted," he clarified. According to Koç, the EU
can help Mediterranean countries to become more
competitive and in turn benefit from the vast markets
the Mediterranean area can offer. Currently,
he said, the EU was doing $190 billion worth of
trade with the region already.
"Sixty-five percent of all EU exports to this
region originate from three countries, Germany,
France and Italy. Similarly three countries, too,
account for 50 percent of EU' s imports, namely
Israel, Turkey and Algeria," Koç said, adding that
there were serious obstacles that prevented the
Mediterranean countries from expanding their
trade.
"Currently they specialize in agriculture and
agro-based industries. On the other hand, due to
common agricultural policies, the EU is rather
protective regarding imports of agro products,"
Koç stated.
Regarding the debate over the EU-
Mediterranean free trade zone, Koç counted his
own observations as; "The set date of 2010 is too
late because the central Europeans are going to
join the EU in the year 2000. According to
Uruguay round agreement, 2005 is targeted for
totalliberalization of the world textile trade."
His second point was that agricultural and agro
industry products should be incorporated into
these agreements and that EU common agricultural
policy requirements must be waived.
Koç called for sufficient financial assistance to
be made available to offset the negative effects of
free trading countries. "The'necessary policies
must be adopted to facilitate the'transfer of tech-.
nology to Mediterranean countries and some
indusro,c;s$ould be en~o\,l~~ged. to. relocate t9 th~s
region," he emphasized. . .
Meanwhile, Turkey's ambassador to London,
Özdem Sanberk, said in an article in Euro-
Mediterranean partnership magazine that there,
were a number of factors working in favor of
Turkey.
"Among the most important of these is the high
volume of unregistered trade with Russia and the
countries of Eastern Europe. Some well-informed
estimates say that this may now have reached $22
billion. Receipts from trade of this sort are certainly
high amonç the factors preventing the
seemingly very high deficits from causing major
problem," h~ wrote in the article.
Meanwhile Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind
praised the Barcelona Conference of November
1995 and said the Euro-Mediterranean partnership
conference was aiming to attract more private
sector investment to the Mediterranean countries.
There were delegates both at govemmentalleveis
as well as from the private sectors of the participating
Mediterranean countries.
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