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TEPAV Director Sak Spoke at CSIS...
08/05/2008 - Viewed 1790 times
Managing Director of TEPAV, Prof. Guven Sak, spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the highly respected think-tanks in Washington, DC. The meeting was held on May 08, 2008 with the title "Global and Domestic Developments: Prospects for the Turkish Economy". The meeting began with a review by Prof. Sak of the current state of the Turkish economy. Prof. Sak examined the implications of global and domestic developments for the Turkish economy. Afterwards, there was a comment section in which Dr. Baran Tuncer spoke. Dr. Tuncer has a distinguished career at the World Bank and is currently a weekly commentator on the economy at Radikal daily. During his presentation, Prof. Sak said: "Turkey is undergoing through a rapid economic and social transformation. One of the current challenges of Turkey is to sustain high growth rates. When compared to other countries in Asia, Central and East Europe as well as the Western Hemisphere in terms of average annual growth rates, Turkey has been performing much better during the period 2002- 2006. However, things have started to change since 2007. Capacity constraints threaten the transformation process. Current capacity of industry and services is not enough to employ the people, who ran out of agriculture. Therefore, second generation reforms that aim to sustain growth, maintain macroeconomic stability, increase international competitiveness and foster social development is of utmost importance. These reforms would strengthen the institutional infrastructure of market economy; reform education, health, social security and other public services as well as build strategic coordination mechanisms for competitiveness of the private sector. Unfortunately, recent political developments in Turkey have shifted the focus out of the reform agenda. Political uncertainty, increasing polarization and global economic developments have affected the Turkish economy negatively. Today's priorities should be to focus on sustaining fund inflows, adhering to fiscal discipline and encouraging the stability of the Central Bank. Completing the economic and social transformation of Turkey is also important for its surrounding region. Transformation process needs to be managed more properly. Nature of the reform process requires broad based consensus. Therefore, there is an important role for the Grand National Assembly Constitution Convention."



Presentation (Audio)

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