Gül: Business making up for the nation’s lost years

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

President Abdullah Gül (L) is seen having an animated discussion with TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu at TOBB’s executive board meeting on March 30 commemorating the institution’s 60th anniversary. Gül said the private sector fuels the economy. Company photo

Turkey is displaying a level of economic performance that will make up for the country’s lost years, and appropriate decision-making is the key to sustainability, said Turkish President Abdullah Gül, speaking at the executive board meeting of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) March 30. He added that the locomotive of growth is no longer the state, but rather the private sector.

Gül expressed his gratitude to TOBB’s members and Turkish businessmen for their contributions to the Turkish economy, in his speech on the occasion of TOBB’s 60th anniversary. “Turkey owes its economic success to you,” he said. “You provide jobs, produce goods and services and make concrete contributions.” He said he always takes the recommendations and reports of the business community very seriously when making decisions. “For many years we saw [economic] losses. Now we are making up for those losses and we need to take this seriously.”

Financing is important

For economic growth to be sustainable, Gül stressed that sources of financing are very important, and domestic savings are critical. “I believe that just as we have been able to get a handle on chronic inflation, we will also be able to rein in our large foreign trade and current account deficits.”

As Turkey becomes more powerful, its entrepreneurs are becoming a global brand, said TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu. “This might sound a bit presumptuous, but we are as strong as a European and as agile as an Asian,” he said.

Hisarcıklıoğlu also said that this was the first time that TOBB had had the pleasure of hosting a Turkish president. “We will always be grateful to President Gül for his efforts to support the private sector and private sector initiatives, not just now, but since 2002.”

According to Hisarcıklıoğlu, Turkey’s private sector sells more than 20,000 products to over 200 countries and the Turkish construction sector is the second-largest in the world after China.