The UK weather is rapidly becoming colder and UK residents may be thinking of embarking on a short break during the upcoming winter season. Turkish beaches seem to be at the very top of the destinations list for such breaks during 2010.
According to new figures released by UK market research agency, GfK, Brits embarking on beach holidays seem to favour Turkish beaches above all others. GfK’s figures were released ahead of the World Travel Market, which is set to be held in London mid-November. The figures have also shown that Turkey is one of the top five destinations for growth in the UK travel market.
This new popularity is mostly due to the all-inclusive holiday market seeing steady growth and the number of operators providing packages for Turkey. However, it’s not only the Brits who enjoy Turkey’s beach holidays, the Mediterranean nation expects its tourism sector to expand by more than 12% between 2010 and 2013, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.[…]
Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ertugrul Gunay, said “Turkish tourism has been a spectacular success this year and the future remains bright, with visitor numbers continuing to grow.”
He may well be right, as the nation’s largest city, Istanbul, was voted European Capital of Culture during 2010.[…]
Turkey’s foreign trade minister maintained its critical stance on valued currency on Wednesday.Thursday, 21 October 2010 11:59
Turkey’s foreign trade minister maintained its critical stance on valued currency saying on Wednesday that Turkey was the only country whose currency was gaining in value.
State Minister for foreign trade Zafer Caglayan said that Turkish lira (TL) was gaining in value, which was against Turkey.
“Currencies of other countries are also gaining in value, but not as much as Turkey,” Caglayan told reporters in New York.
Caglayan said the world economy was shifting towards developing countries from developed countries, and Turkey had to follow that process.
On Turkish-U.S. relations, Caglayan said Turkish exports to the United States were 3.2 billion USD and its imports were 8.5 billion USD in 2009, and Turkish imports from the United States were up three-folds from 2002 to 2009.
However, its exports had not risen and Turkey had a foreign trade deficit with the United States, Caglayan said.
Turkey made 3.35 billion USD of exports to the United States and 3.1 billion USD of imports in 2002.
Caglayan said Turkey had chosen New York, Texas, California, Illinois, Florida and Georgia as target markets, and the U.S. companies had 6.5 billion USD of investments in Turkey and were eager to invest in particulary energy.
There are more than 1,000 U.S. companies and 25,000 international investors in Turkey.
Caglayan said Turkey had drawn 85 billion USD direct foreign capital between 2003 and 2010, and more than 70 percent of that capital had come from Europe.
“Europe has seen Turkey as its product and service base,” Caglayan also said.
Caglayan will proceed to Canada after completing talks in New York.
Turkey has been a bright spot for emerging markets this year, nearly tripling the performance of other Emerging European countries. Tim Steinle, co-manager of the Eastern European Fund (EUROX), has just returned from a research trip to Turkey and reports the Turkish story is gaining momentum.
Industrial Production (IP) grew 11 percent during September compared with the same time period a year ago, reflecting the economy is getting stronger. Global investors are starting to take notice. Roughly $40 billion has flowed into emerging markets so far this year and just over 5 percent of those inflows ($2.3 billion) have landed in Turkey.
Some Central Emerging Europe-Middle East-Africa funds already allocate half of their assets in Turkey and recently some “go-anywhere” global funds have upped their allocations.
Some fear the strong recovery could trigger whiplash inflation but the Turkish central bank prefers to sterilize liquidity instead of raising interest rates in order to keep Turkey’s currency, the lira, from appreciating against its peers. One former central bank governor says that he hopes Turkey can follow in the fiscal footsteps of Brazil, which has been able to keep its own currency valuation under control despite rapid growth in the country’s economy.
The future looks bright for Turkey but there are some potential hurdles the country must overcome. Rising consumption, especially for energy, puts a strain on Turkey’s current account (i.e., the country’s balance sheet) and tilts the country’s trade balance toward imports.
However, Turkey envisions itself as the region’s energy transportation hub. Roughly 1.5 percent of the world’s oil goes through Turkish pipelines and several projects already under construction should ease the country’s energy dependence on foreign sources. In addition, tariffs on the oil and natural gas passing through the pipeline should offset some of the import costs.
Another hurdle is that Turkish Islamists and secularists hold extreme and opposing views, and the rift is deepened by the class divide of poor versus the elite. Will the wider masses take advantage of the new opportunities to better their lives or will the country swing toward theocracy like Saudi Arabia or Iran?
The entrepreneurial predisposition and the failed social experiment of the latter ought to keep that from happening.
WASHINGTON – Turkey on Wednesday rebuffed a U.S. effort to persuade it to scale back its trade ties with Iran, despite a persistent U.S. lobbying campaign this week in Washington and Ankara.
Ali Babacan, Turkey’s deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Washington that Turkish companies will remain “free to make their own decisions” about whether to comply with U.S. and European sanctions aimed at cutting off trade with Iran.
The sanctions, adopted last summer, were designed to build enough economic pressure on Iran to persuade its leaders to limit its disputed nuclear program. The United States and many other countries believe the program is aimed at obtaining know-how to build nuclear weapons, while Iran insists it seeks only peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Turkey is a major trading partner with its neighbor to the east, and its failure to comply with the sanctions is a major threat to their success. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that his country wanted to triple its trade with Iran.
The Obama administration this week mounted a major effort to bring Turkey in line. The Treasury Department’s point man on Iran sanctions, Stuart Levey, visited Ankara on Wednesday to urge Turkish officials to cooperate in the sanctions effort, even as U.S. officials in Washington offered to broaden U.S.-Turkish trade ties.
Yet Babacan, a founding member of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party, said Turkish businesses would be unwise to break off ties to Iranian firms when many European, Chinese and Russian companies “are still doing quite a big business with Iran and finding open doors.”
Babacan, though acknowledging that the Iranian economy is coming under “more and more pressure,” said he still doubted whether Iran’s leadership — which had faced decades of sanctions — would fold. “It is very difficult to expect them to move just because they’re under pressure,” he said.
Turkey receives about one-third of its energy from Iran, and the two-way trade, valued at more than $10 billion, is especially important to impoverished areas along the border with Iran.
Despite the government’s attitude, the U.S. and European sanctions may have some bite, including for Turkish banks, which risk losing access to the U.S. market if they do business with companies that trade with Iran.
Turkish Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan complained this month about U.S. pressure on the banks, saying, “We cannot tolerate it.”
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is also trying to sharpen pressure on Chinese companies, whose behavior is the greatest threat to the sanctions. As other companies cut ties with Iran, Chinese firms appear to be snapping up energy, financial and arms business.
Philip Crowley, the chief State Department spokesman, said Monday the administration has given China the names of companies it suspects are violating sanctions rules, and have received promises that China will investigate.
Economy Minister Ali Babacan speaking at the 29th Annual Conference on US-Turkish relations with Gary Locke (second from left), US Trade Representative Ron Kirk (L).
Although the US has a strong desire to develop trade relations with Turkey, participating in a fresh high-level initiative, its determination to facilitate trade in textiles, however, is not very strong.
A top US trade official said easing customs procedures to allow Turkish textile goods to penetrate the US market at lower tariffs is unlikely despite the US administration’s commitment to high-level dialogue to boost trade.
“Turkey made a very strong case for what they would like to see happen. We were equally practical in trying to help them understand that this is a matter in which our Congress exercises very strong prerogative,” US Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a ministerial-level meeting as part of American-Turkish Council (ATC) talks.
The US is trying to protect its own domestic market by enforcing double-digit tariffs on clothing and other textile items. Such a high figure prevents an invasion of Chinese goods, but is much higher than the average US tariff rate of less than 2 percent. The measure, however, frustrates other countries, among them Turkey.
Kirk said it would be hard for President Barack Obama to persuade Congress to ignore or ease those duties in favor of Turkey, as the United States has done for several poor countries.
Tuesday’s inaugural meeting of the US-Turkey Framework for Strategic Economic and Commercial Cooperation was co-chaired by Kirk and US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke from the US side, and Economy Minister Ali Babacan and Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan from Turkey.
Turkey a priority market for the US
In his speech, Locke said Turkey was a priority market for the current US administration, which aims to double US exports to this country. He said the US would undertake two trade missions to Turkey in 2011.
The two nations pledged to take top-level initiatives to boost trade during President Abdullah Gül’s visit to US President Barack Obama last December. Accordingly, a new US-Turkey Business Council will be established before the end of this year to work on developing trade on 12 key sectors. Furthermore, the two countries are setting up a working group to cooperate on protecting intellectual property rights.
Turkey is one of the few nations that have a trade deficit with the US as it imported $7.1 billion worth of US goods while exporting only $3.66 billion to the world’s largest economy. Turkey’s exports to the US reached their apex in 2006 with $5.4 billion.
Çağlayan is aware of the imbalance in the trade figures and hopes that the fresh dialogue with Washington will mark a new era. “Turkey is determined to do as much trade as it can with every country in the world,” he said.
Babacan added that Turkey has been committed to maintaining “an open economy” with all countries since embarking on economic reforms in the early 2000s. “We are implementing a multidimensional foreign policy and a multidimensional trade policy. We just want to have a high gross domestic product [GDP] for our country … and we know this will flow through more trade and investment,” he said.
Next year’s meeting in Turkey
Attendees of the ministerial-level meeting decided to convene again in the coming year, but this time in Turkey. The ministers also gave the final shape to a letter of intent that aims to establish a connection to work together in foreign direct investment (FDI) between the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Development Agency and Invest in America. The letter is expected to be signed sometime this year. Furthermore, the ministers pledged to improve relations between the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the two countries.
Other measures also came out of the ministerial-level meeting. The USTR, for instance, will organize a non-official workshop in Turkey to publicize the standards of the Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA) best production practices.
Both sides will be better off
Doug Silliman, chargé d’affaires of the US mission in Turkey, has also confirmed the US’s efforts to create and advance investment and economic opportunities that will in the end make both the US and Turkey better off.
Delivering a speech at one of the ATC panel discussions, he argued that the US is working to introduce policies to facilitate trade, investment and joint initiatives between Turkish and US companies. Silliman called on the entrepreneurs of both countries to establish partnerships and develop projects. Eventually, it is the responsibility of the private sectors to deepen the economic ties, he noted.
The first ministerial-level meeting is an indicator of a high-level will and the presence of an intention of the governments of both nations, he said.
Silliman noted that the six-monthly trade between the US and Turkey in the first half of the year soared by 37 percent over the same period a year ago, adding that, albeit good, it is not enough.
Speaking at the same panel discussion, Koç Holding Chairman Mustafa Koç also focused on the need to improve economic relations between the two countries. He argued that prioritizing military and strategic interests in US-Turkish relations is not functional. “This doesn’t mean these interests are not important, but a solid economic foundation is a must for a sustainable and stable relationship,” he said.
President Abdullah Gül has said Turkey would become stronger with a powerful economy, a better democracy and higher legal standards, and that a strong Turkey would be to the benefit of the world, Europe and its neighbors.
Hayrünnisa Gül (L) and Bettina Wulff, the wife of the German president, visited Kayseri’s historic sites.
Attending the Turkish-German Economy Forum on Wednesday in Kayseri, Central Anatolia, with German President Christian Wulff, Gül commenced his speech by welcoming the guests. “It is my pleasure to welcome you to the city in which I was born,” he said.The president said Wulff’s visit adds a fresh impetus to the already-good relations between the two nations, particularly mentioning the role of over 3 million Turks in Germany as a bridge between the two peoples.
He said Turks show their fidelity to Germany by integrating into its society while at the same time protecting their Muslim-Turkish identity.
He recalled Germany’s past support for Turkey’s membership process to the European Union and asked the “engine of the EU” to continue supporting Turkey’s case. The Turkish president also spoke about the recent success of the Turkish economy and a number of structural reforms that secured the country from the effects of last year’s global economic crisis while pushing Turkey’s economy to new heights.
“Trade volume between Turkey and Germany exceeded $30 billion in 2008, but our exports fell as European markets sustained heavy damage from the economic crisis,” Gül said. If Turkey joins the EU, it will have a share in the current pie of wealth, he noted, adding that Turkey will first increase the size of the pie and then take its share.
Wulff meets with civil society leaders
German President Wulff, on an official visit to Turkey amidst a heated debate over the integration of Germany’s immigrant communities into German society, convened with representatives of some of Turkey’s major civil society organizations over breakfast.
Osman Güner from the Anatolian Culture Association, Ayhan Bilgen from the Civil Society Development Center, Halime Güner from the Flying Broom, Human Rights Joint Platform (İHOP) General Coordinator Feray Salman and Alevi-Bektaşi Federation President Ali Balkız exchanged opinions with the German president during a one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting.
Wulff mainly listened to the participants, taking frequent notes during the meeting, which mainly revolved around the topic of Turkey’s democratization process.
The president was particularly interested in the mandatory courses on religion at the primary and high school levels as well as problems faced by Alevis on this issue. He was also curious about how an Alevi dede (religious leader) is trained.
In the meantime, Turkey’s first lady, Hayrünnisa Gül, accompanied Bettina Wulff, the wife of the German president, on a tour of Kayseri’s historic sites. The two women first visited the Bürüngüz Mosque before heading to the ages-old covered market. The two women briefly spoke with tradesmen in the bazaar while shopping.
One tradesman presented a shawl and a piece of traditional muslin to each woman. Another vendor in the market offered Gül and Wulff some Turkish delight. They later visited a nursing home and spoke with the elderly residents living there.
