The performance of global firms have undergone major changes. They now follow good customers, not cheap labor.

Countries can be grouped in two categories, those dealing mainly with the issues of the current century, and those unable to let go of the issues of the previous generations. Turkey, unfortunately, has not been able to quit the second group. The world is living in the twenty-first century while Turkey is dealing with the issues of the nineteenth. The Kurdish issue is just one among these. We do not even know how to handle an issue, let alone solve it. When exactly? Halfway through the first quarter of the twenty-first century. We are surrounded by chaos. The Election Board, based on an  amendment to Article 13/A of the penal code as introduced in 2006 during the term of the government currently in power - God knows for what purpose -, has added to the chaos. Now we are pushing the relevant institutions and rules to solve this problem. Thank God we improved the stretching capacity of the legislative branch with the last referendum! Otherwise it would have been much tougher to solve this political crisis! All of the pieces of the system are scaling off. Turkey is spending all of its time focusing on the issues of the nineteenth century. Why? Because of incompetence.

However, the agenda of the twenty-first century is very different from that of the nineteenth century.. The agenda of the twenty-first century is the differentiating performance of global firms. The Wall Street Journal recently featured a news article based on the US Department of Commerce statistics. According to this, in the 2000s, global US firms have reduced employment in the US by 2.9 million and increased employment abroad by 2.4 million. Global firms have employed 21 million people in the US and 10.3 million people abroad. They used to generate employment predominantly in their home countries. Do not conclude directly that global firms have been shifting employment abroad due to rising labor costs. I know some of you will, as the notes below reveal. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of one of these global firms, General Electric, points at the changes firms have undergone in the twenty-first century. Firms now follow good customers, not cheap labor. Firms have been shifting their operations to wherever the customers are. This is one of the major tendencies witnessed in the current era. Let me stress this as the first point.

And the second one: the crisis of 2008 did not deal a major blow to capitalism. It has served to deepen the globalization process further. This is what happened to the world: Although the US was in economic turmoil, US firms grew wealthier and started to distinguish themselves from their home country. The firms which diversified their operations at the global level were not harmed at all by the crisis. They even made use of the crisis. In this context, have you ever looked at the soft drink performance of the Coca Cola Company, for instance? The sales of soft drinks grew by 3 percent on the global level. This is why the stocks of the Coca Cola Company have risen recently. Have you seen in which countries the sales of soft drinks have  increased? Russia ranks first with 27 percent, followed by Turkey with 20 percent and India with 10 percent. Brazil and China are also in the top ranks. The most popular issue of the corporate sector in the current era is the global-scale operations of firms. This is the second point.

The third point goes as follows: Given the current trends in the world, we should expect that as of 2011 more foreign firms will increase their operations in the Turkish market and more mergers and acquisitions will take place among the corporate sector. This is what the current growth performance makes us think, theoretically. But is Turkey ready for this? Not exactly.

I think this is what the Prophet Mohammed cautioned in the Hadith: "When the power or authority comes in the hands of unfit persons, then wait for the Hour (Doomsday.)"

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 22.04.2011