There is a huge interest in Turkey among foreign investors, and the perception that the country is a hub for regional investment has taken root, according to prominent corporate lawyer Şafak Herdem. However, legal uncertainties are seen as the biggest risk factor and the changes are too fast, Herdem adds
Foreign investors see huge opportunities in Turkey, but legal uncertainties remain their most important concern, according to a lawyer working with investors from abroad.
“The problem is that the changes are too fast. Anything can happen at any time in some commission in Parliament. So investors are confused on the issue of the legal framework, wondering about what kind of new changes they will again be facing,” Şafak Herdem told the Hürriyet Daily News in a recent interview.
What is the current analysis of foreign investors about Turkey?
It is currently indexed to the elections. They are questioning whether the upcoming elections will affect stability or not. There is a group that continues to see Turkey as a land of growing opportunities. These are mainly made up of investment funds. Those who are willing to fund big infrastructure and energy projects seem not to be affected by the prospect of the upcoming elections.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
Turkish Deputy PM to attend Mandela’s memorial ceremony on Tuesday
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay will represent Turkey at the funeral and memorial ceremony for former South African president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on Tuesday, December 10.
Mandela earned the nickname of Madiba (uniter) by successfully bringing into being the ‘Rainbow Nation’ in which all colors, races and religions live in equality and harmony after winning his struggle against the racist white minority, a written statement by Atalay’s press office noted.
“The actual achievement which made him one of the rare leaders in world history was that he did not pursue a road of revenge and violence after serving a 27-year prison sentence, but he transformed the resentment and hatred caused by many years of injustice into love and brotherhood. With this approach, he has inspired solutions to many problems and conflicts around the world,” Atalay said.
AA
Flautre: Investigation into daily, journalist over MGK docs ‘scandalous’
Hélène Flautre, the co-chairwoman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, has described the launch of an investigation into the Taraf daily and journalist Mehmet Baransu for publishing records of controversial National Security Council (MGK) documents as being “scandalous” and “inappropriate,” adding that she has serious concerns about freedom of the press in Turkey.
A prompt investigation was launched last week against Taraf and Baransu for reporting on a confidential MGK document that mentioned a planned crackdown on faith-based groups in the country.
In November, the Taraf daily published several confidential documents suggesting that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) profiled individuals linked to some religious and faith-based groups. The party admitted the authenticity of the documents but argued that no action was taken to implement the policy prescriptions indicated therein. On Thursday, however, the Prime Ministry, MİT and the MGK filed a joint criminal complaint against the daily and Baransu for revealing confidential state documents. The complaint immediately turned into an investigation against the journalist.
“Attacking the newspaper or the journalist who printed this news [about government profiling of individuals] is like arresting somebody who runs toward you and reports a crime” Flautre was reported to say to the journalists.
TODAYS ZAMAN
Erdogan getting hit in AKP-‘Cemaat’ war
The almost two-year-long strife that has been raging between the AKP government and the Gulen Movement [a faith community identified as Cemaat in Turkey], which had been a de facto partner of the political power earlier, has dramatically escalated lately. It is on the verge of becoming a media war with an unpredictable outcome, with secret intelligence documents being made public one after another.
The first dramatic move in the struggle between old partners was made by police intelligence and the specially authorized judiciary against the chief of the National Intelligence Organization, Hakan Fidan, who has the full confidence of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Fidan was summoned by the prosecutor to respond to charges that the Turkish intelligence service had illegal contact with the PKK. Fidan refused the summons. This incident was recorded in Turkish political history as the “7 February MIT-Judiciary crisis.”
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/12/turkey-akp-cemaat-gulen.html#ixzz2myQSe1kl
AL MONITOR
Merrill Lynch refuses to serve Turkish defense firm
U.S.-based financial management and advisory company Merrill Lynch has refused Turkish defense firm Aselsan’s request for it to advise and underwrite Aselsan’s second public offering, citing the missile deal inked by Turkey with a Chinese company currently under U.S. sanctions.
“If it is possible that you will work with the Chinese company, CPMIEC, we would not work with you,” said Merrill Lynch in a letter sent to Aselsan.
Western reactions appear to be increasing after Turkey’s selection of the Chinese firm to co-produce a long-range air and missile defense system. The U.S.-based Merrill Lynch cited the decision as a reason in itself to deny Aselsan’s request to work with it in Aselsan’s second public offering. Questioned by daily Hürriyet, Merrill Lynch confirmed that it had refused Aselsan’s offer due to Turkey’s missile deal with China, but declined to give further details of the letter claimed to have been sent to Aselsan.
CPMIEC is under U.S. sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. Merrill Lynch reminded that CPMIEC was on the U.S.’s blacklist.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
Turkey limits consumer loans out of fear for current deficit
Turkish consumers’ credit card debts rose from 14 billion liras in 2004 to 82 billion Turkish Liras in October 2013, under the ruling party AKP as consumer loan debts reached to 240 billion liras in this period. The consumer loan debt is triggering domestic demand, but not exports, widening the country’s foreign trade gap and pushing the country’s current account gap up.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan said the following words to the public in the Aegean province of Muğla last week: “Please, be sensitive in taking credit cards. They are the biggest source of the interest rate lobby. Live within your income and do not be used by this lobby. Members of the lobby may take what you have.”
Credit card debts increased up to 82 billion Turkish Liras by the end of October 2013 from, 14 billion Turkish Liras in 2004 under the rule of Erdoğan, who now calls banks part of an “interest rate lobby, but praised them in the past as “tax champions.”
Families and people are indebted to banks over 321 billion Turkish Liras ($160 billion) under the rule of the Justice and Development Party. Economy administration could say such a debt amount is not that high, not over half of the households income in Turkey. And the members of this club may note this percentage is over than 100 percent in some EU countries. They, however, must be forgetting the above-mentioned amount is covering Turkish people’s bank debts, excluding their informal debts. Families and people tend to be indebted to many informal sources from groceries to usurers.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
09.12.2013
compiled by Editor BTT,
This is a news-scan from major Turkish papers and internet sites. However, we do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.
