2013 the year of sell-offs, minister says

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Turkey will see a considerable number of privatizations in 2013, which may even break the “privatization record,” Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said yesterday during a broadcast interview.

“This year may be the year of breaking the privatization record,” he said, adding that this was mainly due to an improvement in the global background.

Şimşek also said he would not be attending the Davos meetings this year, which will be taking place at the end of this month, saying he will instead be coming together with important global funds in London for two days and New York for three days at the same time. He added he would have a chance to explain Turkey to many investors individually, or in groups, at the meetings.

He also said that in the privatization field their priority was to take steps that have the characteristics of structural reforms. “To sum up, we are assertive in the field of privatization. On the other side, we are assertive in revenues too. Even from the first and second days of this year, we made an income transfer that would cover the privatization targets of the whole year.