Fewer workers at state firms

ANKARA

Hürriyet photo

The number of people employed at Turkish public companies fell to 171,000 from 435,000 in 2000 due to privatization, with numbers falling even further as major assets are sold.

The share of the added value created by public companies in the gross domestic product also fell to a mere 1.1 percent from around 3.5 percent in 2000, according to official data, Anatolia news agency reported.

Public companies are expected to post 2 billion Turkish Liras in term revenues, but still create a 2.1 billion-lira non-interest rate gap, according to the government’s 2013 program.

The program suggests 5.4 billion liras of capital transfer, 2.4 million liras of loss payment and 8 billion liras in investments for next year.

Spanning several years, Turkey’s privatization measures totaled nearly $500 million in the first nine months of the year, falling from $1.4 billion in all of 2011. The government aims to finalize the privatization of the Boğaziçi, Gediz, Trakya, Istanbul’s Anatolian side, Toroslar, Akdeniz, Aras, Vangölü and Dicle electricity grids and the natural gas grid in Ankara next year. It also plans to launch the sale of electricity production facilities.

However the government is still far from reaching its goals in privatizing the energy sector due to financial problems faced by bidding companies.