Turkish gov’t plans fine-tuning in bankruptcy regulation

“We are working to resolve several unjust results in bankruptcy cases, together with the Ministry of Justice. We will submit our draft to the Prime Ministry as soon as we finalize it,” Tüfenkçi said at a meeting in the eastern province of Malatya.

More than 1,000 companies in Turkey have sought to have their bankruptcy proceedings suspended since the beginning of 2015, but experts warn that the misuse of the condition could lead a domino effect in the economy. 

Tüfenkçi also vowed that the required draft regulation to revise the check system, which has long been demanded by businesspeople, would be addressed by the government.

“In terms of the figures there is actually not a dramatic rise in the number of bad checks. But the business world has recently adopted a negative perception about this sort of payment. Many businesspeople try not to accept checks unless they have to. This has led to problems in trade. In order to resolve these problems, we have finalized a draft regulation and are ready to submit this package to the cabinet and parliament,” he added. 

Tüfenkçi also said Turkey needs a raft of structural reforms to increase its share in global trade and to raise its competiveness. 

“We believe in our people’s entrepreneurial spirit. We must clear up obstacles that prevent them from taking steps to realize this spirit,” he said, adding that these reforms should be realized immediately.

Tüfenkçi noted that the government would be unveiling a series of new economic incentive packages, mainly aimed at supporting exporters. 

Saying that the opening of new border gates played a crucial role in boosting trade, the minister added that a new border gate with Iraq would be opened soon. “We have actually completed our works, but there are some budget problems on the other side. We plan to launch the gate by undertaking these costs ourselves,” he said.

He noted that procedures have been accelerated in a dramatic manner at customs thanks to the use of a single-window system, slashing the bureaucratic procedure rate from 13 percent to 6 percent. 

“Some 70 percent of customs transactions take place over four hours, but we have set a 2-hour target and have already reached this target in some transactions. Our plan is to shorten this timeframe further, in order to cut costs,” Tüfenkçi said.