BURSA (AA) - March 31, 2013 - Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek on Saturday said that one of their most crucial reforms had to do with income tax.
Speaking on the second and last day of the Uludag Economy Summit in the north-western province of Bursa, Mehmet Simsek stressed that the income tax reform was presented to the Economy Coordination Board as well as the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"The struggle against black economy is one of the structural problems. Black economy in Turkey in 2003 had a share of 32 percent and this figure dropped to 27 percent. We plan to bring down black economy to below 20 percent. If we can achieve this, we will be able to allocate an additional 45-50 billion Turkish liras (TL) without increasing taxes. This is a serious figure," Simsek underlined.
Touching on the process of solution in Turkey, Minister Mehmet Simsek indicated that if Turkey can solve its problem within advanced democracy and by increasing basic rights and freedoms, Turkey's global and regional position would get stronger and Turkey will become a source of inspiration for many countries.
"Turkey will become a role model," Simsek noted.
"If the process of solution succeeds and a permanent solution gets established, Turkey will be a very different country," Simsek said.
"Just as Turkey has been trying to fill the gap with Western nations in the past decade, Turkey's east and south-east are in an effort to close the gap with the west. We are in a process where regional development is getting balanced," Simsek also said.
Second and last day of Uludag Economy Summit
The Uludag Economy Summit ended on Saturday after the presentations and remarks of various leaders.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan on Saturday said that "credit rating agencies get more valuable the more we speak about them".
Babacan's comments came in response to a recent upgrading of Turkey's credit rating by Standard & Poor's credit rating agency.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA), Babacan said that they would keep walking and credit rating agencies would follow them.
On the possibility of new participation banks in Turkey, Ali Babacan said that state run banks Ziraat Bankasi and Halk Bankasi could each establish a new participation bank.
Touching on the privatization of bridges and highways in Turkey, Babacan underlined that they did not approve the privatizations not because they had changed their mind about the privatizations but due to their concerns on the amount of money offered for the privatizations.
Chairman of the Executive Board of Calik Holding, Ahmet Calik said that Turkey was now a country with high prestige in the world.
"I believe that Turkey's credit rating is much higher than credit rating agencies say. There are nice days waiting for Turkey in the future," Calik noted.
"Global companies working with Turkish counterparts earn high profits," Calik said.
"Some of our group companies plan to sell shares to the public. We are making efforts to open up our real estate and energy companies to the public," Calik indicated.
CEO of the Eczacibasi Group, Erdal Karamercan said that "financial inheritance left to children carry no importance".
"What is crucial is to leave behind a world in which the inheritance could be utilized," Karamercan noted.
Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board and Director General of Sisecam, Ahmet Kirman said that they collected 115,000 tonnes of waste glass.
"The savings made with 115,000 tonnes resulted in providing heating for 5,000 residences in a year and met all energy need for warm water," Kirman stated.
A member of the Executive Board of Koc Holding, Turgay Durak said that they were all aware that works shifted from the west to the east and from north to south.
"77 percent of our exports of industrial products went to Europe in 2008. This figure has dropped to 56 percent currently," Durak stressed.
CEO of the Sabanci Holding, Zafer Kurtul described the upcoming term in Turkey as "exciting".
"We do hope that the upcoming term would be one of stability," Kurtul said.
CEO of Avea, Erkan Akdemir said that while they were not a manufacturing company, they were closely watching the developments in the manufacture of mobile phones in the world.
Serpil Timuray of the Executive Board of Vodafone Turkey said that mobile phones were becoming computers.
"Mobile phones are also becoming wallets. Soon, we will have mobile wallets," Timuray said.
Director General of Turk Telekom, Tahsin Yilmaz stressed that they made great contributions to the transformation of the lives of humans, societies and companies.
"We are actually changing the living styles of humans and companies," Yilmaz stated.
Director General of IBM Turk, Isabel Gomez Cagigas said that "as IBM, we believe that Turkey would grow further and become one of the most important economies of the world."
"Can Turkey achieve this? I say with big letters 'yes'," Cagigas indicated.
Director General of Microsoft Turkey, Tamer Ozmen said that "for Turkey to reach its 2023 goals, investments on research and development must be 3 percent of the national income".
Chairman of the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM), Mehmet Buyukeksi said that they were establishing TIM Innovation Workshops in 50 disadvantaged elementary schools.
"Our aim is to train 1,200 students per year and a total of 12,000 students in 10 years. This way, we would like to contribute to Turkey's exports and production," Buyukeksi underlined.
On the Uludag Economy Summit, Chairman of the Confederation of Turkish Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) Rizanur Meral emphasized that it would not be right for them to compare the Uludag Economy Summit to the Davos Summit.
"I believe that no matter how good it may be, a copy of the original can not be as good as the original. By adding our own patterns, we can take the Uludag Economy Summit to a point further than Davos Summit," Meral noted.
Finally, renowned economist from the New York University, Nouriel Roubini stated that "with the process of solution in Turkey, military spendings would go down and more investments would take place in all regions".
"The process of reforms will bring to Turkey social stability and a consensus would be reached in the region," Roubini expressed.
"Such a situation will affect the oil issue and the oil pipeline. The process of solution would (positively) affect domestic trade. Turkey could enter the world of greatest success stories," Roubini emphasized.
"The amount of public savings must increase in Turkey. Turkey needs structural reforms in order to reach a strong economy," Roubini also said.
Anadolu Agency was the media sponsor of the Uludag Economy Summit and news on the summit were published in five languages.
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