Int’l loans ‘should be based on gold, not dollars’: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has suggested that international loans should be contracted based on gold instead of U.S. dollars in order to prevent exchange rate pressure on economies.

“I made a suggestion at a G20 meeting. I asked: Why do we make all loans in dollars? Let’s use another currency. I suggest that the loans should be made based on gold,” Erdoğan said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul on April 16.

“With the dollar the world is always under exchange rate pressure. We should save states and nations from this exchange rate pressure. Gold has never been a tool of oppression throughout history,” he added.

His remarks came after the Turkish Lira hit a record low of 4.1920 against dollar on April 11. The lira was the second worst performing emerging market currency over the last month after the Russian ruble, with a nearly 7 percent loss in its value.

‘Strong sense of entrepreneurship’

Erdoğan also lashed out at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), accusing the organization of trying to “manipulate” Turkey’s political direction.

“There is [financial] tutelage in the soul of the IMF. Most of the poor and miserable countries of the world have been groaning bitterly because they could not be liberated from that tutelage approach,” he said, stressing that Turkey is “not in the IMF’s debt anymore.”

The president also stated that the new airport in Istanbul and Turkey’s first indigenous car projects highlighted the country’s “strong sense of entrepreneurship.”

“The airport is being built by five entrepreneurs who were encouraged by the government,” he said.

The airport, which is expected to open this year, will reportedly have the potential to carry up to 90 million passengers annually upon completion of the first phase of construction. Following the second phase of construction, expected to be completed in 2023, this number will rise to 150-250 million, said Erdoğan.

The airport’s auction was won by a consortium of five contractors: Limak, Kolin, Cengiz, Mapa and Kalyon.

He also touched on the indigenous car project which will be produced by another consortium — Anadolu Group, BMC, Turkcell, Kiraca and Zorlu.

“The spirit of entrepreneurship is not ordinary. We will be able to produce our own planes like the indigenous car. Ideas come true with dreams,” he said.

The Global Entrepreneurship Network’s (GEN) annual four-day congress began on April 16, welcoming nearly 400 speakers from around the world, including academics, politicians, businesspeople, and representatives of global organizations such as the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The congress in Istanbul is being hosted by the Economy Ministry, the Turkish Exporters Assembly, entrepreneurship associations Endeavor Turkey and Habitat.