Turkish Forum

Category: Business

  • Turkey profits from German ‘brain drain’

    Turkey profits from German ‘brain drain’

    Türkçe: https://www.turkishnews.com/tr/content/2013/04/09/turkiyeye-beyin-gocu/

    Turkey is trying to attract skilled workers from Germany. Many Germans of Turkish origin are choosing to make their future in Turkey, where they believe they have a bettter chance of setting up their own companies.

    Eighteen months ago, Dilek Keser decided to leave Germany and make a new life for herself in Turkey.

    “I don’t regret it for a moment,” she says now. Before she left, she was working as the general manager of a company, but she wasn’t happy with her prospects in the job.

    Now Keser, who was born 36 years ago in Hanover to a Turkish family, has her own business managing real estate in Istanbul. It’s a German-Turkish company, looking after the property of European and US investors, and earning both euros and Turkish lira.

    “Initially it was important for me to continue to earn European money,” she told Deutsche Welle. “But I don’t need that any longer.”

    With German training and language skills in German, Turkish and English, she had particularly good chances on the Turkish labor market.

    ‘Send skilled workers to Turkey’

    Many Germans of Turkish descent like Dilek Keser are going back to the homeland of their parents and grandparents. Official German statistics show that 31,000 people moved from Turkey to Germany in 2011, but 33,000 moved in the other direction. It’s a trend which has continued since 2006.

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    Keser has made a better future for herself in Istanbul

    One of the main reasons is the high level of Turkish economic growth and the good chances of getting a job. The Turkish industry minister, Nihat Ergün, was in Berlin recently, where he spoke about the good economic conditions in his country: “Germany should send skilled workers to Turkey,” he said, “and not the other way round.” And he said that Germans without Turkish roots would also be very welcome.

    Following the start of the Turkish “guest worker” program in Germany in 1961, 750,000 Turks came to Germany before the program ended in 1973. Ergün says Turkey lost so many workers to Germany as a result that he doesn’t want to see any similar agreement in future.

    Turkish Germans are an economic motor

    The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants to turn Turkey into one of the most important economies in the world by 2023. In 2011, growth was 8.5 percent, and the construction and energy sectors are booming.

    But Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) in Istanbul, says that “2013 will be a critical year for Turkey” on account of the economic problems of the EU: “Forty percent of Turkish exports go to the EU and 85 percent of foreign direct investment in Turkey comes from the EU.”

    But Ulgen emphasizes that, especially in economically difficult times, Turkish workers from German play a particularly important role. “Turkey is hoping to exploit the know-how of people with Turkish roots who were trained in Germany,” he told Deutsche Welle. “They are in better financial circumstances, and that alone puts them in a better position to set up companies and create jobs.” He believes that Turkey has a varied economy which gives people who want to set up businesses more options than they would have in Germany.

    The Turkish economic boom has attracted many German Turks back to the homeland

    Tolga Sandikci would have to agree with that. He was born in Munich, but he came to Turkey five years ago. In Germany he was a manager in a factory; now he has his own company and sells ice surfaces for ice-skating rinks.

    “After just three months, I already had some 400 orders,” he recalls. “In Germany, the company could never have grown so fast. There are so many business ideas which still haven’t been done in Turkey.”

    But Sandikci warns against naïve optimism: “There are big differences in mentality – I’ve only noticed since I’ve been living in Turkey how German I am.” One difference is that there’s a much bigger risk of being cheated in Turkey than there is in Germany, the business owner notes.

    Economic bubble

    But the Turkish economist and business journalist Mustafa Sönmez warns that the boom has a dark side: “Foreign investment in construction has created a dangerous bubble.” Turkey should restrain the construction industry and build up the industrial sector, which has been seriously neglected, he says.  “We’re an importing country, but we must do more for exports so that the Turkish economy becomes less vulnerable.”

    And he adds that this is more important than attracting German-trained workers.

    But if the outlook in Turkey should get worse, or the difference in mentality should get too big, Turkish Germans have one big advantage: “I can always go back to Germany,” says Sandikci. Having two homelands is “a blessing.”

    via Turkey profits from German ‘brain drain’ | Germany | DW.DE | 09.04.2013.

  • Lo-Q makes move into Turkey

    Lo-Q makes move into Turkey

    Lo-Q (LON:LOQ), the queuing solutions group, has staked its claim in Turkey through a new deal with the country’s first international mega theme park, exhibition centre and shopping centre.

    “Adding Vialand to our park portfolio adds to our already strong presence in the European theme park arena," said CEO Tom Burnet
    “Adding Vialand to our park portfolio adds to our already strong presence in the European theme park arena,” said CEO Tom Burnet

    Its Q-bot and Q-smart technologies will be launched at the new Vialand park, which spans 600,000 square metres of land at the heart of Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city.

    The systems will be installed at the theme park for two years with the option to extend the agreement for a further two.

    Chief executive Tom Burnet said: “I am delighted Gürsoy & Via Development and Management Co sought to install both our Q-bot and Q-smart solutions at Turkey’s first mega theme park.

    “This is a particularly exciting deal for Lo-Q not only because it is our first installation in Turkey, but also because Vialand marks the second customer win for our newest technology solution, Q-smart.

    “Adding Vialand to our park portfolio adds to our already strong presence in the European theme park arena.”

    Q-bot, the company’s flagship product, will be used at eight of the park’s largest rides in time for Vialand’s grand opening later this year. Q-smart meanwhile, Lo-Q’s smartphone solution that allows park visitors to book their rides in advance to avoid queuing, will be launched later in the season.

    Vialand is expected to welcome two million guests through its doors every year. It is thought the park will boost the number of local and foreign tourists visiting Istanbul by as much as 15%.

    via Lo-Q makes move into Turkey – Proactiveinvestors (UK).

  • Turkey February Industrial Production Unexpectedly Rises

    Turkey February Industrial Production Unexpectedly Rises

    Turkey’s adjusted industrial production growth rose to 4.4 percent in February, beating expectations and signaling a pickup in economic activity after last year’s slump.

    Industrial production rose 1.5 percent over the previous month and 1.7 percent over the previous year when not adjusted for working days, according to figures published by the official statistics agency in Ankara today. The median estimate of five economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 2.4 percent workday-adjusted expansion.

    “The industrial production performance in the first two months of this year seems to draw a better picture than the one observed in the final quarter of 2012,” Gokce Celik, an economist at Finansbank AS in Istanbul, said in an e-mailed report after the data was published today. “The recovery in the domestic demand that started in the final quarter of 2012 has started to be transmitted into economic activity as of the beginning of this year.”

    Turkey’s gross domestic product expanded by 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter last year, the slowest pace since 2009, as central bank efforts to cut the current-account deficit depressed domestic demand. The economy grew 2.2 percent in the full year to $786.3 billion, according to data released by the statistics office on April 1.

    Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan blamed the central bank for the slump in an interview with CNBC-e today, saying it was late to cut interest rates and support government growth goals. He said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also supported that view.

    The central bank should cut its benchmark policy rate as the government targets a 4 percent expansion in GDP this year, Caglayan said.

    Yields on benchmark two-year Turkish notes dropped 12 basis points to 5.97 percent at 12:05 p.m. in Istanbul, falling for a fourth day. The lira gained 0.1 percent to 1.7914 against the dollar.

    via Turkey February Industrial Production Unexpectedly Rises – Businessweek.

  • Full Interview of Pres. Assad with Turkish Media: Syria’s Breakup Will Cause Mideast to Blow Up

    Full Interview of Pres. Assad with Turkish Media: Syria’s Breakup Will Cause Mideast to Blow Up

    Eretz Zen

     

    Published on Apr 5, 2013

    Syrian President Bashar Assad warned in comments broadcast Friday April 5, 2013 that the fall of the Syrian government or the breakup of his nation will cause a “domino effect” that will fuel Middle East instability for years, in his sharpest warning yet about the potential fallout of his country’s civil war on neighboring states.

    In an interview with the Turkish TV station Ulusal Kanal broadcast Friday, Syrian President Assad accused his neighbors of stoking the revolt against his government, saying “we are surrounded by countries that help terrorists and allow them to enter Syria.” But he warned that those same countries may eventually pay a price down the road.

    “Everybody knows that if the disturbances in Syria reach the point of the country’s breakup, or terrorist forces control Syria, or if the two cases happen, then this will immediately spill over into neighboring countries first, and later there will be a domino effect that will reach countries across the Middle East,” he said.

    He also lashed out at Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was a close ally of Assad before the crisis began but then turned into one of his harshest critics.

    “When the prime minister (Erdogan), or the government or officials get involved in shedding Syrian people’s blood there is no place for bridges between me and them or the Syrian people that don’t respect them,” Assad said.

    Turkey has been one of the strongest backers of the Syrian Islamist “opposition,” and has provided it with logistical support and shelter.

    “The Arab League lacks legitimacy. It’s a league that represents the Arab states, not the Arab people, so it can’t grant or retract legitimacy,” he also stated in reference to the recent move by the league to give Syria’s seat to the Doha coalition headed by Moaz al-Khatib.

    The president also used the interview to quash rumors that he had been killed by one of his guards in the capital Damascus.

    Asked by a journalist whether he is still alive, Assad told Ulusal Kanal: “I am present in front of you and not in a shelter. These are mere rumors.”

    He said he is living as usual in Syria and is not hiding in underground shelters.

    Source: Ulusal Kana

  • Tech Mahindra expands footprint in Turkey, Central Asia

    Tech Mahindra expands footprint in Turkey, Central Asia

    IT firm Tech Mahindra  today announced the launch of its new centre in Istanbul, which will serve as a hub for Turkey and Central Asia region. Tech Mahindra aims to bank on the young and cosmopolitan population of Turkey and provide specialised services to its customers from this centre, it said in a statement.

    tech-mahindra-190 The company aims to develop the branch as a near-shore centre for projects, given the geographical position of Turkey as a hub between Europe and Middle East. “Turkey is on a growth trajectory and we at Tech Mahindra are very keen to be part of this journey.

    We look forward to the support from local government as we grow our footprint in the region,” Tech Mahindra Vice President Sales Girish Bhat said. As a part of its plans for its Turkey centre, Tech Mahindra aims to recruit local resources and train them to support the company’s services over the years to come, he added.

    Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) President M Ilker Ayci said, “The Turkish government targets the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector to be around USD 160 billion in size by 2023 from USD 30 billion in 2011. Thus, companies focusing on R&D and innovation are more than welcome and assisted immensely in Turkey.”

  • What’s the script for Turkey? doing nicely, or could do better?

    What’s the script for Turkey? doing nicely, or could do better?

    In these difficult economic times, with disappointing jobs figures in the US and stagnation in the eurozone, the growth story of Turkey tells is a coherent one – or it would be, if all the country’s government signed up to it.

    Yes, the 2.2 per cent increase in GDP logged last year was a far cry from the 8.8 per cent of 2011, but, as Ali Babacan, the country’s deputy prime minister and economic supremo, has argued, the economy still shines in comparison with Europe. Last year, he recently noted, it still had the lowest inflation in 44 years, a 1m rise in employment, near-zero real interest rates and improved credit ratings.

    But not all his colleagues have exhibited such positive thinking. Zafer Caglayan, the economy minister, has spoken about Turkey’s central bank’s monetary policy as a “bitter brake” on growth that would otherwise have been considerably more.

    So the question arises: for whom is Caglayan is speaking? For the Turkish businessmen he represented in his previous incarnation as head of Ankara’s Chamber of Industry, distressed at a real economy that sometimes seems markedly more sluggish than the official figures would suggest? Or for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the most powerful prime minister Turkey has seen for very many years?

    Later this week, Erdogan himself appeared to provide the answer.

    Speaking at a ceremony marking the rebranding of Istanbul Stock Exchange as Borsa Istanbul, he too noted that Turkey’s growth last year was much higher than both the US and the EU – and surveyed economic progress during his decade in office, remarking on how interest rates have declined in that time from some 63 per cent to about 6 per cent.

    “It is still high,” he said of the current rate. “I hope we will lift this pressure on consumers by reducing it further.”

    In his comments, Erdogan acknowledged Standard & Poor’s recent upgrade of Turkish debt to the cusp of investment grade status – but didn’t hide continuing tensions with the ratings agencies. “They are upgrading Turkey unwillingly,” he said. “If it was up to them, they would even downgrade us.”

    The prime minister also made clear that he wanted to see the central bank move to a new financial centre in Istanbul, along with state banks and regulators – but central bank officials have deep reservations about carrying out such a move.

    Part of the Turkish story advanced by the country’s top economic officials is the value of having a truly independent central bank. After his comments this week, Erdogan’s thoughts on the topic are all the more intriguing.

    via What’s the script for Turkey? doing nicely, or could do better? | beyondbrics.