Turkey cannot become the tenth biggest economy of the world wound dressing measures; structural reforms are needed.

Yesterday I addressed the possibility for Turkey to become the tenth biggest economy of the world. And I argued that this cannot be accomplished with empty talks. Today let me continue with this subject and let me explain why empty talk is not enough to accomplish this target. On last Monday, a press meeting on remission of calculated taxes. We are to add a new one to some twenty tax remission regulations. And I am sure this will be adopted, too. Watching the meeting, I noticed no emphasis on an amendment of laws or the restructuring of administration. Let us hope such issue will come to the agenda alongside a new remission regulation proposal. We should expect to witness a new state-citizen embracement in another press meeting with the time 'this time is the last time' in no longer than two years. Nonetheless, no first league country can have a tax system resembling that of third world countries. 'Turkey cannot become the tenth biggest economy of the world wound dressing measures; structural reforms are needed.

Qualitative leap
For a country like Turkey with its population of 70 million and working population less than 25 million to build the tenth biggest economy of the world, a qualitative leap is required. Back to the Russia issue for instance; working population in Russia is 69 million. Given that this always is equal to Turkey's total population; should Turkey's will be bigger than Russia's, as claimed, Turkey particularly needs to undergo a qualitative transformation. More effort should be made in a series of reform in various fields from education system to skill transformation of the labor force; from judicial system to energy infrastructure; and from public reform based on decentralization of administration to immigration policy tailored in tandem with the labor force requirement of the industrial sector. And the EU perspective Turkey appears to have lost is of necessity particularly for such structural reform and qualitative transformation.

While I was writing the previous commentary, I was under the influence of the assessment reading "Though Turkey voices BRIC plus T ambitions; the country's GDP is only half of Russia's; the poorest BRIC nation." I do not know; this might be the reflection of the 'mine beats yours' competition prevailing in this territory. It is also possible that I still think of Russia as the country referred to in the old Eastern Germany anecdote.

It reads as follows: One Eastern Germany citizen, after long efforts, finds a job in Siberia. He says goodbye to his friends before he leaves. He also is aware that all sort of correspondence is monitored and controlled there. So, he and his friends agree on a coded language. According to this, if our pal uses blue ink, what he tells in the letter is correct. If the ink is red, you should not believe at all what he tells. Anyway, after a while first letter is delivered. The letter is written with blue ink. It says: "Dear all. My job is quite fine. I stay in a comfortable and warm place; we do not even feel the cold weather outside. Siberia is a beautiful place." His friends, shocked, look at each other's faces with question marks in their heads. The letter continues:  "Hollywood films play in theatres at the same time with America. Shopping malls are crowded. The only thing is that I cannot find red ink anywhere. But that is a trivial detail, right?" That is still more or less the Russia image in my mind.

But how can it not be? Do you follow the Mihail Hodorkovsky suit? Any case starting as a tax penalty suit gets suspended. When Hodorkovsky gets close to be released since his serves his time or if there is nothing else to discuss in front of the court, the prosecutor says: "Sir, we have a new charge filed which we want to bring to the attention of the Supreme Court." And the guy cannot go out of jail. Russia is such a place. What does Russia have that Turkey does not? We still have a long way to go.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 20.11.2010