Why Antakya is feeling Syria’s pain
Güven Sak, PhD
22 September 2012
It is Antakya for us Turks, and Antioch to most others. The city is part of Hatay province in the southeast of Turkey, right on the Syrian border. I mostly know of Antakya through its Archaeological Museum, which contains Roman mosaics from the region. But the city is well worth a visit for other reasons as well; for example its restaurants offer a natural mix of Arab, Turkish and French cuisines. UNESCO recently named it a World City of Gastronomy. With its hospitable population of about 1.5 million, the city should be on the itinerary of any curious visitor to Turkey. These days, Antakya is the city in Turkey where you can feel the tension of the Syrian crisis the most. There were demonstrations in the town calling for an end to the military campaign against Syria. For the purpo
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Why Turkey’s industrial giants have switched to construction
Güven Sak, PhD
21 September 2012
I am starting to believe that the flaws of the industrial incentive system are not what push an electronics giant to do construction in Istanbul. Here is the issue that has occupied my thinking lately: how was South Korea’s electronics giant Samsung able to become a global giant while a peer in Turkey prefers to engage in the construction business in Istanbul? Why did the one in Turkey switch from being an industrialist to a contractor, while its Korean peer did the exact opposite? I still cannot forget a meeting with Turkish companies from a couple of years ago. When making investment plans, Turkey’s industrial giants aimed at growing nationally in the service sector. I am starting to believe that the flaws of the industrial incentive system are not what push an electronic giant to do con
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The Central Bank could take a lesson from Steve Jobs
Güven Sak, PhD
18 September 2012
The way to slow down the economy is to increase interest rates. If you want the opposite, do the opposite in financial policy Turkey’s economy is slowing down; its growth rate is dropping off. The distress you feel everywhere is most probably related to this. Ankara has wanted the Turkish economy to slow down. Lately, however, I cannot stop wondering whether this was what Ankara actually wanted. Yes, the economy has cooled down, but it has not yet shown a sign of a rally despite the Central Bank (CB) having recently lowered the effective interest rate. If you think about you, you might suspect that something is going wrong. What is the reason? And why do I think that in the current environment the CB has a lot to learn from Steve Jobs about putting things back on track?
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The Paris Protocol is bad economics for Palestine
Güven Sak, PhD
15 September 2012
I had a déjà vu experience in Ramallah last Monday. It was like old intifada times. Slogans being chanted, burning tires placed over large rocks blocking cars, children throwing stones again. There was, however, an important difference. The demonstrations were not about Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation but about the policy of the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Dr. Salam Fayyad. People are demonstrating against recent price hikes due to the Israeli government’s decision to raise the value added tax on certain items. The measure was taken as a way to control Israel’s budget, but it’s the Palestinians who feel its impact. Why? Because of the 1994 Paris Protocol between Israelis and Palestinians. Let me tell you why the protocol is bad for Palestinian economi
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Turkey ranks third in the world in housing price growth
Güven Sak, PhD
14 September 2012
Between June 2011 and 2012, house prices in Turkey increased by 10.5 percent. The rate for Brazil was 18.4 percent As of June 2012, Turkey was third in the world in terms of housing price growth, according to the Global House Price Index. Should we be concerned? I don’t think so. Let me tell you how I read this picture. Last weekend, I was in Israel’s capital, Tel Aviv. I’ve always loved visiting Tel Aviv. It is a beautiful port city in the eastern Mediterranean. It’s a city that doesn’t have a history. It came and completely absorbed the ancient city of Haffa. Tel Aviv resembles Beirut, Alexandria, and Izmir. I had not been to Tel Aviv for the previous two years. This time, I was attracted by the high-rise apartments that are newly built or under construction. Normally in Tel Aviv there a
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You see Samsung when you open up an Apple
Güven Sak, PhD
11 September 2012
Apple is buying parts from its rival because Samsung produces the highest-quality parts at the lowest prices. Apple has needed Samsung to become what it is today. Such is the current era. You buy an Apple iPhone, but when you disassemble it, you see many parts that have been produced by Samsung. Korean Samsung is one of the main suppliers for American Apple. The major supplier, actually. Apple is a US-based company that produces products that we had not heard of five years ago, yet are indispensible for us today. Apple is a global trademark, but none of its products are manufactured entirely in the US. Why? Because you cannot create global trademarks with domestic goods. I recommend you the latest commentary of TEPAV economist N. Emrah Aydınonat on how you see Samsung when you slice an App
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The race for the iron rice bowl
Güven Sak, PhD
08 September 2012
A highly disproportional number of university graduates in Turkey are looking for a civil service job. This Ramadan, on August 26, a crowd of unemployed university graduates broke their fast outside the prime ministerial residence. Hundreds of demonstrators coming from all around the country condemned their government’s indecision on public service employment. This happened in Rabat, Morocco, but it could have easily been in Ankara. Figures and emails I have received from unemployed university graduates attest to this. Let me tell you why this is a problem.
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The number of applicants for public employee exams has reached a million
Güven Sak, PhD
04 September 2012
Over the last decade, the number of public employees has increased by 30 percent. New employment in the public sector in the first half of 2012 was about 250,000. Let’s admit that this was a first: in 2012, the number of people seeking to become public employee reached almost a million. 987,000 people applied for the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS). Out of these, 931,000 took the exam. In 2009, I remember seeing a photo of Chinese youth standing in rows like an army of ants in the The Guardian and I was greatly impressed. That year, one million people took the public personnel election examination in China. Back then, this was not the case in Turkey. The number of applicants for the KPSS in 2008 was around 500,000. Meanwhile, Turkey has taken the growth record from China or s
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How to solve a 19th-century problem?
Güven Sak, PhD
01 September 2012
Today, the Turkish political elite are still looking at the problem with a 19th-century bias. Why did the call of Mr. Cemil Çiçek, the speaker of Parliament, for national reconciliation fall on deaf ears? Once again, PKK activity is on the rise. It was right after the Gaziantep bombing. Everything we see and hear is so much like the early 1990s. We are all frustrated. This time Çiçek’s call was different.
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Why has Turkey always been a loser?
Güven Sak, PhD
31 August 2012
In the current era where growth is indexed to ideas, Turkey needs creative minds and an infrastructure to protect their products. The other day I cited the European Union’s Innovation Union Scoreboard. The new version of the study covers Turkey as well as 27 EU countries. They are grouped in four categories: innovation leaders, innovation followers, moderate innovators, and modest innovators. Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Latvia are in the fourth category, which is more like the losers' category. So, why have we always been a loser? I think that prosperity cannot exist in the absence of education and justice. Restructuring the ministries of education and justice should be among the priorities of the growth strategy. Let me emphasize this while preparations for the new five-year
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