Turkish Deputy PM Babacan said that Turkey’s rapid recovery from the global downturn was giving a new boost to the government’s plan on Istanbul.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister for Economy Ali Babacan said that Turkey’s rapid recovery from the global downturn was giving a new boost to the government’s plan to turn Istanbul into an international financial center to rival Dubai or eventually even London.
Babacan said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal during the annual Global Economy Symposium in Istanbul, “the international financial downturn has only added to Istanbul’s attractiveness.”
“Especially after the global economic crisis, Turkey increasingly is perceived as an island of stability in a region that stretches from Ireland to India. Turkey has a financial sector that was ‘tested and proved’ during the global crisis,” he said.
“The government made no bailouts. That has helped keep the country’s budget deficit down and left room to cut taxes in the future, even as other countries with big financial centers raise taxes in a struggle to plug deficits,” he said.
Babacan recognized that Turkey was not China. But he said, “the government’s assertive foreign policy, a political atmosphere is becoming more open, and developments such as the dramatic expansion of Turkish Airlines is creating a commercial hinterland for Istanbul that is much wider than Turkey alone,” he said. He cited the Balkans, Romania, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Babacan said, without naming Dubai, that Istanbul was also better placed to win the Middle Eastern market in the long term.
He pointed to the growing number of Arabs who were buying real estate in Istanbul.
“Northern Africa, too, is becoming part of Turkey’s commercial sphere,” he said.
“I have spoken to a surprising number of bankers who were fed up with London’s income-tax increases. They told me that they were considering moving personnel.
But there has been no sudden rush of international bankers to take of advantage of Istanbul’s relatively low office-space and wage costs yet,” Babacan added.
AA
World Bulletin
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