Down below you will find a summary of topics from major Turkish papers and internet sites
Japanese Mitsui to expand its presence in Turkey with USD 100 million
First established in Turkey in 1956, the 400-year old Japanese corporation Mitsui & Co. is expanding its presence in the country with new investments. A stakeholder in Toyota’s Sakarya plant and a partner in Turkey’s Acibadem hospital chain and Tempo call center Company, the Japanese trading and industrial giant now plans to invest USD 100 million in a manufacturing operation.
“Turkey is one of the star countries that are designated as high-growth markets in a particular field according to Mitsui’s strategic plans”, Mitsui Turkey Representative Yuichi Aoki said. “Turkey stands out with its transportation sector, high growth rate and young population among other priority markets for Mitsui..”, he noted.
Regarding their planned USD 100 million investment in Turkey, Aoki said that the manufacturing operation would be one of the most important Japanese investments in the country to date, helping to cut down the current account deficit.
ISPAT on Far East tour to promote Turkey’s investment environment
Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) which is responsible for global investment promotion activities conducted several meetings in Malaysia and Singapore following a series of seminars and meetings in Japan to present Turkey’s investment opportunities to the Japanese business community.
ISPAT President Ilker Ayci said “In the process of realizing large scale infrastructure projects in a number of sectors such as education, energy, construction, defense, healthcare, transportation and ICT, Turkey offers enormous opportunities for foreign investors with long-term plans” at a press meeting with potential investors in Malaysia and Singapore.
AYCI also said that international investors were closely monitoring the developments in such large-scale projects including the third airport in Istanbul, Canakkale Strait Bridge and the projected fast rail lines between Izmir-Ankara and Istanbul-Bilecik. The ISPAT president said that privatization tenders had earned the country some USD 50 billion in the last 9 years and added another important project was USD 400 billion worth of urban transformation which was closely monitored by foreign investors”
ISPAT’s next stops to promote Turkey’s investment opportunities this year will be the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and the US.
Turkey grows 4.4 percent in 2nd quarter
Turkey’s economy continues on its growth track for the 15th consecutive quarter, expanding by 4.4 percent in the second quarter of 2013, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The 4.4 percent growth rate exceeds forecasts and makes the country the highest performing economy in Europe and the third fastest grower in the world. Meanwhile, TurkStat revised the country’s first quarter growth down to 2.9 percent from 3 percent, which, combined with the newly released figures, corresponds to a 3.7 percent growth for the first half.
Commenting on the news, Turkey’s Minister of Economy, Zafer Caglayan, said that the 4.4 percent was admirably positive given the status of the world economy. “Despite the regional uncertainties, Turkey has been growing at an annual average rate of 5.3 percent in the last decade. Our second quarter performance indicates that annual growth rate will be slightly below 4 percent.”, he remarked.
Turkey’s annual GDP growth stood at 2.2 percent in 2012, following impressive growth rate figures of 9.2 and 8.5 percent in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The country aims to reach 4 percent of GDP growth rate in 2013 as per the government’s medium term program.
US, Russia agree plan on Syria’s chemical weapons
The United States and Russia on Sept. 14 agreed on an ambitious plan to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons by the middle of next year.
In a landmark deal thrashed out in talks spanning three days, the two powers gave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a week to hand over the details and location of his regime’s stockpile, drastically cutting back on the 30 days usually accorded to new signatories of the International Chemical Weapons Convention.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said al-Assad’s regime must also provide “immediate and unfettered” access to inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
“The inspectors must be on the ground no later than November and the goal is to establish the removal by halfway through next year,” Kerry told reporters at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after they wrapped up their talks.
Echoing a warning from President Barack Obama that military action by the U.S. and its allies remained an option if diplomacy fails, Kerry warned that there must be “no games, no room for avoidance of anything less than full compliance by the al-Assad regime.” Kerry said the steps agreed on Sept. 14 would be encapsulated in a U.N. Security Council resolution drawn up under Chapter Seven of the organisation’s charter, which provides for enforcement through sanctions including the possible use of military force. But with Russia strongly opposed to the use of military threats and wielding a veto on the Security Council, Kerry acknowledged it was “impossible to have a pre-agreement” on what would happen in the event of non-compliance.
Turkey must refocus on EU, top boss says
TÜSİAD’s Yılmaz seeks to put Turkey’s moribund EU accession process back on the front burner, saying it is absolutely critical for democratization
Turkey needs to get back on track in its European Union accession process if it wants to achieve greater economic growth, political stability and democratization, the head of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) said yesterday.
“Turkey today is trying to maintain greater economic growth, political stability and democratization processes simultaneously despite all the uncertainties and instability in its surroundings, as it did before,” Muharrem Yılmaz said at an event at the Institut de Bosphore. “On the road to achieving those goals, Turkey needs to refocus on the EU membership process, which had been off the rails for a while.”
Turkey’s EU membership process is of great importance both for the country’s economic improvement and democratization process, he said, adding that the EU had already played a significant role in Turkey’s rapid progress in the chapters covering human rights, basic rights and freedoms.
He said Turkey needed to upgrade its relations with the EU in line with today’s different realities and with what it had learned from the membership process.
OECD: Turkey outperforms G-20 economies with 2.1 pct growth in Q2
Turkey recorded the strongest gross domestic product (GDP) growth among OECD G-20 economies in the second quarter with 2.1 percent, according to new data released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Thursday.
The average growth for G-20 economies in the second quarter stood at 0.9 percent while the quarter one average was 0.6 percent. According to the data, Korea came in second after Turkey with 1.1 percent growth in the same quarter. Turkey’s growth in the previous quarter was 1.5 percent while Korea’s was 0.8 percent. The report suggests GDP growth has accelerated in most of the world’s largest economies but has slowed marginally in Canada and Japan and significantly in Mexico.
GDP growth grew by 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, in the United Kingdom and the United States, compared with 0.3 percent in the previous quarter. In Germany, the GDP went up by 0.7 percent, remaining flat compared to the previous quarter while the GDP in France grew by 0.5 percent, “rebounding from a contraction of 0.2 percent in the previous quarter,” the report said.
In the meantime, GDP growth in Japan decreased to 0.9 percent while the Canadian GDP also slowed marginally by 0.5 percent. In Mexico, the GDP fell by 0.7 percent, its first contraction since the second quarter of 2009.
However, growth in Brazil increased from 0.6 percent to 1.5 percent, in South Africa from 0.2 percent to 0.8 percent, in India from 0.4 percent to 0.6 percent and in China from 1.6 percent to 1.7 percent. GDP growth in Indonesia remained stable at 1.4 percent.
Turkey’s economy immune to crises: World Bank official
The Turkish economy will adapt to the changing conditions of the global economy, resulting from the latest decision of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) to end the high liquidity party, said the country director for Turkey of the World Bank, Martin Raiser, speaking at a conference on the International Forum on Financial Systems yesterday.
“Turkey has been immune to economic crises. The country faced its own crisis in the past and the latest global economic burst had a very limited effect on Turkey. And Turkey will easily adapt to the changing circumstances of the global economy,” he noted. Turkey grew 4.4 percent in the second quarter of the year, which was higher than expected.
“This was surprising to us, I admit, but there were some indicators which had shown a surge in the growth rate, such as a healthy consumer confidence and strong tourism performance in Turkey,” he said.
Raiser reminded about the Turkish economy’s need for continuous foreign direct investment flow and a highly competitive private sector. According to him, emerging markets are no longer about creating financial systems that just mobilize domestic resources or attract resources from the advanced economies.
14.09.2013
SOURCE: MEDIA
We do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.
