Development Economist Bartu Soral: Turkey is experiencing a production crisis
Mr. Bartu SORAL a prominent economist with substantial experience in the field of development economy shared an important article saying it would be impossible for Turkey to get out of the crisis without increasing production. SORAL went on to emphasize that investments should be realized as soon as possible in sectors where foreign dependence was high.
The inability to prevent the melting of the Turkish lira with the increase in inflation turns our eyes to economic management. It is curious what the government will do at this point, while the interest rate increases of central banks, especially the United States, are accelerated. Stating that Turkey’s problem is not interest, Development Economist and former Director of the United Nations Development Program Bartu SORAL said that there were many problems at the same time and they could not be solved only with interest.
NO TIME TO WAIT FOR THE RIGHT MOOD, TO TAKE ACTION
Emphasizing that there was a production crisis, Soral noted that investments should be made as soon as possible in sectors where foreign dependence was high.
Soral said, “The Republic of Turkey is not in a position to wait for the right mood of the private sector. We saw this film once again, in black and white. The film started in 1923, and when we got to 1930, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk saw that the private sector did not undertake investments, whereas Turkey needed factories very urgently. A step was taken. Turkey had produce. It was necessary to stop importation. In 10 years, from 1930 to 1940, 44 factories were built.”
No brains are being trained to produce technology
Bartu Soral who said Turkey ranked 50th in PISA and had no school in the world’s top 500 universities, adding Turkey had an education problem and noting that brains to produce technology were not being trained.
Soral said Turkey made profit in foreign trade in labor-intensive sectors and added following: “Without closing the technology gap, the result will not change, even if you increase the interest rate by a thousand basis points.”
He also noted that Turkey did not have a road map and asked, “In which sectors shall we enter into regional and global competition in the next 5-10 years? An economy that is run like a chicken with its head cut off.”
Ataturk acted with a “planning mind”
Bartu Soral who stated that neoliberalism had taken over Turkey since 1980, said that the sale of public institutions to multinational companies had been imposed. He went on to say, “What we call the economy is the usage of scarce resources for the right sources (places).”
He reminded that in the next 12 months a total amount of US$ 220 billion (US$ 180 billion main loan and US$ 40 billion for interest) would be paid forwarding the question “So, you used this external/foreign loans and why did you not build the facilities that created this external debt, and did not prevent imports? What does the planning mind do that does not immerse itself in the neoliberalism of America? That’s what Ataturk did.”
TURKEY’S ECONOMY WAS BOOSTED BY FACTORIES
Atatürk had many factories built in every branch of industry, from iron to sugar, from textiles to cement, putting an end to the country’s foreign dependence. He boosted Turkey’s economy.
450 billion dollars gone in 10 years
Bartu Soral, who explained that the integrated system between TÜPRAŞ, Petkim and Petrol Ofisi was first deconstructed and then privatized, said “We were told that we would see an excellent business model. As a result, current production increase for Petkim is 5 percent and it can only meet 15 percent of the petrochemical needs of the domestic market. For this reason, the largest import of Turkey after energy is petrochemicals. A total of $ 450 billion was paid in 10 years.”
Hundreds of factories, millions of square meters of land sold
Privatizations started in 1986 and accelerated in 2002. By the time the AK Party (AKP) came to power, only $8 billion worth of privatization had been done. However, during the AKP governments, Turkey’s most valuable factories were disposed of one by one. During the AKP governments between 2002 and 2022, the total amount of privatization exceeded US$ 63 billion. Hundreds of factories, industrial facilities, mines, ports, dams and coal plants were sold. Not only factories were privatized during this period. At the same time, the most valuable lands also received their share of privatizations. At least 300 million square meters of treasury land have been privatized in the last 20 years in the same way. Since there are very few institutions left in the hands of the public, the AKP has recently been trying to create resources by putting valuable treasury lands on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts up for sale.
Excerpts translated from article by Bartu SORAL – MANY THANKS TO THE AUTHOR
Source link: sozcu.com.tr/2022/ekonomi/kalkinma-ekonomisti-bartu-soral-turkiye-uretim-krizi-yasiyor-7266614
