Tuesday, February 22, 2011
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
 'Just as we are taking steps and implementing reforms in Turkey, we expect the same from northern Cypriots,' says Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek. AA photo |
Turkish Cypriots should put their house in order so as to efficiently direct public spending to infrastructure in northern Cyprus, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said Monday at a meeting in Istanbul to mark the 10th anniversary of Turkey’s Feb. 21 economic crisis.
“What matters for us is the welfare of northern Cypriots and we will continue to support them,” Şimşek said in response to concerns that Turkey might cut funding allocated for northern Cypriots after protests took place in Nicosia that angered Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“Just as we are taking steps and implementing reforms in Turkey, we expect the same from northern Cypriots,” he said, noting that Turkey demands Turkish Cyprus use Turkish funds efficiently in infrastructure projects. “Northern Cypriots should tidy up their home, just as we are doing,” he said.
Turkey replaced Kaya Türkmen, its ambassador to northern Cyprus, this month with Halil İbrahim Akça, who does not come from the Turkish Foreign Ministry ranks but instead had been serving as the head of Turkey’s coordination office for financial grants.
The appointment was interpreted as a reaction to the Turkish Cypriot trade unions’ protest on Jan. 28, calling the Turkish government “to get its hands off [Cypriot] shores.”
Crises are not inevitable as long as the structural reforms in both the finance and banking sectors are designed according to shocks, the minister said in his speech at the meeting in Istanbul Ticaret University.
"Turkey took lessons from the devastating economic crisis of 2001 and implemented the right policies," he said. “Turkey’s public debt reached unbearable levels in the 2001 crisis.” He said the country had asked for more financial support from International Monetary Fund, while it could not pay the interest on its debt before the crisis.
According to Şimşek, Turkey kept increasing its public dept with misguided policies and irresponsible populist attitudes from politicians before the crisis. He pointed to the coalition government formed by the Democratic Left Party, or DSP, the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, and the Motherland Party, or ANAP, which was in power until Nov. 18, 2002. Şimsek accused the political party leaders at the time of “promising things with no sufficient resources.”
Talking to journalists, Şimşek said internal debt was nearly 5 percent of the total national income of the country in the ’90s. The amount peaked at 51 percent of the national income and reached 122 billion Turkish Liras. Evaluating the financial climate of 2001, the minister said the interest rate of internal debt and foreign debt increased to 41.1 billion liras from 14 million liras in 1990.
Talking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, the minister said, “We are not following someone else’s program,” although the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has not changed the economic program that the previous coalition government formed mainly by Kemal Derviş, a former World Bank deputy president, implemented after the crisis.
“Certainly there had been reforms connected with the IMF program after the crisis,” he said, adding that some of the reforms were very important during the mandate of the technocrat appointed as a minister by the coalition government in 2001.
“What matters for us is the welfare of northern Cypriots and we will continue to support them,” Şimşek said in response to concerns that Turkey might cut funding allocated for northern Cypriots after protests took place in Nicosia that angered Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“Just as we are taking steps and implementing reforms in Turkey, we expect the same from northern Cypriots,” he said, noting that Turkey demands Turkish Cyprus use Turkish funds efficiently in infrastructure projects. “Northern Cypriots should tidy up their home, just as we are doing,” he said.
Turkey replaced Kaya Türkmen, its ambassador to northern Cyprus, this month with Halil İbrahim Akça, who does not come from the Turkish Foreign Ministry ranks but instead had been serving as the head of Turkey’s coordination office for financial grants.
The appointment was interpreted as a reaction to the Turkish Cypriot trade unions’ protest on Jan. 28, calling the Turkish government “to get its hands off [Cypriot] shores.”
Evaluating the crisis
"Turkey took lessons from the devastating economic crisis of 2001 and implemented the right policies," he said. “Turkey’s public debt reached unbearable levels in the 2001 crisis.” He said the country had asked for more financial support from International Monetary Fund, while it could not pay the interest on its debt before the crisis.
According to Şimşek, Turkey kept increasing its public dept with misguided policies and irresponsible populist attitudes from politicians before the crisis. He pointed to the coalition government formed by the Democratic Left Party, or DSP, the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, and the Motherland Party, or ANAP, which was in power until Nov. 18, 2002. Şimsek accused the political party leaders at the time of “promising things with no sufficient resources.”
Talking to journalists, Şimşek said internal debt was nearly 5 percent of the total national income of the country in the ’90s. The amount peaked at 51 percent of the national income and reached 122 billion Turkish Liras. Evaluating the financial climate of 2001, the minister said the interest rate of internal debt and foreign debt increased to 41.1 billion liras from 14 million liras in 1990.
Talking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, the minister said, “We are not following someone else’s program,” although the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has not changed the economic program that the previous coalition government formed mainly by Kemal Derviş, a former World Bank deputy president, implemented after the crisis.
“Certainly there had been reforms connected with the IMF program after the crisis,” he said, adding that some of the reforms were very important during the mandate of the technocrat appointed as a minister by the coalition government in 2001.
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