Economists see no future in EU

Gökhan Kurtaran ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

‘Orientation toward the east is crucial for Turkey, which aims to rank among the 10 biggest economies of the world by 2023,’ says economist Jacques. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

Turkey’s future does not lie in membership to European Union but in its own region and Asia, according to renowned economists.

“I think Turkey’s future will not be best served by too strongly being orientated towards Europe,” Martin Jacques, a professor at the London School of Economics, and author of “When China Rules the World,” told the Hürriyet Daily News.

All projections shows emerging countries will continue to grow twice as faster as the developed world in the near future and Turkey’s economy should be plugged into those economies, just like the rising global power China, according to Jacques.

“Orientation towards east is crucial, for the country which aims to rank among the top 10 economies of the world by 2023,” Jacques said in an interview yesterday.

Turkey can use its economic potential and think big rather than relying on the European Union, according to Paul Romer, senior fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy and ranked in the U.S.’s 25 most influential people by Time magazine in 1997. Turkey does not need to join European Union but focus on major projects in its region, Romer told the Daily News in a recent interview.

“Turkey could start forming new major economic hubs in North African and Middle East countries boosting its economic power as Great Britain once did with Hong Kong,” he said. “A few years ago I was in Istanbul and I thought it was a good idea for Turkey to join EU,” he said, adding that his views has changed after witnessing the economic performance of the country and political stability in midst of the economic crisis in Europe and unrest in Middle East and North Africa.

“A large plot of unoccupied land, large enough for millions of people to live can be allocated by Turkey in any country in the region and turned into an economic hub, a new economic zone, such as Hong Kong,” he said.

‘UK might leave EU’

China, long humiliated by western countries and particularly by European leaders, is now in a position to finance the debts of Europe, Jacques said. “French President Nicholas Sarkozy asked China to support the debt hit union,” he said, adding that the answer would be not be positive.

“The U.K. will most probably leave the union and search for new alternatives,” said Jacques, adding that the in the long run Chinese businessmen will take over the European firms in difficulty of financing their debts.

“In the long run, Iran is definitely a potential partner for China.” The question is that whether Turkey will decide to take part in the “old world or a new one.”