At the assembly of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) yesterday in İstanbul, Erdoğan spoke about the 3.7 percent growth rate predicted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for 2010, saying the government was working to meet the modest 3.5 percent prediction set forth by the Medium-Term Economic Program (MTEP).
Erdoğan, speaking about the strength of the Turkish banking sector, highlighted that 158 banks have closed their doors in the US since the beginning of the crisis, while Turkey had not had any difficulty with its banking sector, nor did it have any banks close its doors due to the regulation reforms of the past seven years. He added that the capital adequacy ratio of 20.4 percent of Turkish banks rivaled those of much of the West, including the US, Canada, and Germany.
Speaking on the 2010 budget, which was accepted by Parliament on Friday, Erdoğan noted that the 2010 budget was designed as the “recovery budget,” and that critics tried to take advantage of the effects of the crisis in Parliament to discredit the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), but Erdoğan added that “the great people of our nation know the realities and necessities.” Speaking about the unemployment issue that arose in 2009, Erdoğan noted that although unemployment jumped from 10 percent to 13 percent, other developing nations suffered much more substantial unemployment increases.
Erdoğan, touching on the issue of workers laid off due to the privatization of the state-owned tobacco and alcohol monopoly Tekel, reasserted that the closing down of these factories was announced two years ago and that talks with the necessary parties, unions and workers took place, warning them of the closures.
“Roughly 10,000 people were standing around in tobacco storage warehouses and costing us TL 40 million. … We told them two years ago that these warehouses would be closed and to get ready. We told this to the presidents of Türk-İş [the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions] and TekGıda-İş [the Union of Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverage, Food and Related Industry Workers of Turkey], sat down with them and told them about the situation. … I do not morally have the right to dole out money for workers not producing anything when orphans have a right to that money,” said Erdoğan.
Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President and DEİK Chairman Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu also spoke at the event, revealing that DEİK was ready for 2010 with more than 100 projects and 600 events in 84 different countries. He added that competition in the post-crisis would not be forgiving and that the private sector would face a much more difficult globalized system. “We need to try to understand this system and make the necessary preparations. We need not be optimistic or pessimistic, we need to be realistic,” he said.
