#TURKEY IN BRIEF

#INVESTING IN TURKEY

 

 

 

SOME HISTORICAL FACTS

1300 B.C. - 1300 A.C Diversity of cultures and civilizations in Anatolia (Hitit, Troy, Persian, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk)
1300 - 1922 Ottoman Empire
1923 Mustafa Kemal: Founder and first President of Turkish Republic
"Kemalism": European-oriented, secular national state
1946 Multiparty Democracy
1952 NATO membership
1960 Free Labour Unions
1961 OECD membership
since 1960s Increasing industrialization
1964 Associated EC member
1983 Liberalization Economy
1987 Application for full EC membership
1996 Inauguration of customs union with EU
2000 Admitted as a candidate member for EU
2004 Received start up for EU accession negotiations

 

GEOGRAPHY & NATURAL RESOURCES

TOTAL AREA:

779.542 km², Thrace(Europe): 23.764 km², Anatolia (Asia): 755.688 km², Max Length: 1.565 km, Average width: 550 km. 

COASTLINE:

8.333 km, Aegean: 2.805 km, Mediterranean: 1.577 km, Black Sea: 1.695 km, Marmara: 927 km.

FRONTIERS:

2.753  km, Syria:877 km, Former USSR (Georgia, Armenia, Nakhichevan Autonomous Region):610 km, Iran:454 km, Iraq: 331 km, Bulgaria: 269 km, Greece 212 km.

LAND:

30% arable, 4% permanent crops, 12% meadows and pastures, 26% forest and woodland, 28% other.

REGIONS:

7 geographical regions: Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Central Anotolian, Eastern and Southeastern.

CLIMATE:

Three climate zones: the Mediterranean (hot and dry summers, mild and wet winters), continental (hot and dry summers, cold and harsh winter), the Black Sea (temperate and wet all year long)

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS:

Wheat, barley corn, cotton, tea, tobacco, hazelnuts, figs, grapes, sunflower seeds, soybeans, sugar beets, fresh fruıts and vegetables, fresh flowers.

NATURAL RESOURCES:

Oil, coal, lignite, borate, chromium, iron ore, copper, manganese, antimony, mercury, sulphur, zinc, borax, meerschaum, phosphate, lead, geothermal wells.

 

DEMOGRAPHY

POPULATION:

Overall 67.8 million (2001 figure) 
Major Cities: 
Istanbul 13 million
Ankara 6 million
İzmir 4 million
GROWTH RATE: 1.4% p.a
AVERAGE DENSITY: 90 person / km²
LIFE EXPENLACY AT BIRTH: 71.2 years
AGE DECOMPOSITION: 53% under 25 years old
AVAILABLE WORK FORCE: 2.5 million
OFFCIAL LANGUAGE: Turkish
RELIGION:

 

Muslim 98%, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and others: 2% Greek Orthodox Patriarch and Armenian Patriarch are located in Istanbul.

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

GOVERNMENT TYPE: Republican parliamnentary democracy
CAPITAL: Ankara
ADMINISTRIVE DIVISIONS: 81 provinces
INDEPENDENCE: 29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire)
CONSTITUTION: Adopted 7 November 1982, ammendments in 1987, 1995 and 2002
LEGAL SYSTEM:

 

Derived from  from various European continental legal systems; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
SUFFRAGE: 18 years of age; universal
EXECUTIVE BRANCH:

 

Chief of state:President Ahmed Necdet Sezer

Head of government:Prime Minister tayyip erdoğan

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH:

 

Unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey or Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi (550 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five years terms)
JUDICIAL BRANCH:

 

Constitutional Court (judges are appointed by the president).

Court of Appeals (judges are elected by the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecuters)

maın POLITICAL PARTIES AND LEADERS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Justice and Development Party or AKP Tayyip Erdoğan
  2. Republican People's Party or CHP Deniz Baykal
  3. True Path Party or DYP Mehmet Ağar
  4. Young Party or GP Cem Uzan
  5. Nationalist Action Party or MHP Devlet Bahçeli
  6. Motherland Party or ANAP Ali Talip Özdemir
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS:

 

 

UN (United Nations), European Parliment, EU (European Union - associate member / Member of the Customs Union with the EU), NATO, OECD, CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe), GATT, BSECC (black Sea Economic Cooperation Council), WHO, IMF, ILO, UNESCO, ECOSOC, FAO, IDB (Islamic Development Bank), INTELSAT, INTERPOL.

 

POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

TURKISH REPUBLIC

Commitment to Europe Democracy Secularism
  • Swiss civil law/Italian criminal law.
  • Adoption of Latin alphabet and numbers in one stroke
  • International memberships -NATO(1952)   -OECD(1961)            -EU customs union since 1996
  • Multiparty system
  • History of regular change of governments with sustained social and economic development
  • Multiparty coalitions/ involving both left-center and right-center between 1991-2002
  • Clearly established legally and socially
  • Military perceived as guardian of secularism
  • Liberal, pragmatic attitude of the nation to religion

Right center majority government since 2002

ECONOMY

MAIN ECONOMIC INDICATORS

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005F
GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT
GNP (US$ bn) 144 182 244 300 330
GNP per capital (US$) 2105 2619 3400 4180 4530
GNP growth (%) -9.5 7.9 5.9 8.5 6.5
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
Annual Growth (%) -8.9 9.2 8.5 9.8 8.5
Capacity Utilization (%) 71.9 76.2 78.5 81.7 80.0
annual INFLATION (YEAR-END)
Annual WPI (%) 88.6 30.8 13.9 13.8 9.0
Annual CPI (%) 68.5 29.7 18.4 9.3 8.0
FX RATES (YEAR-END)
yTL-US$ (%) 1.4466 1.6397 1.3933 1.3363 1.4505
yTL-Euro (%) 1.2813 1.7189 1.7575 1.8233 1.8856
BALANCE OF PAYMENTS (USD BN)
total Exports 31.3 36.1 47.2 62.8 71
total Imports 41.4 51.6 69.3 97.2 104
Current Account Balance 2.4 -0.8 -3.2 -5.2 -4.0
net DEBT of public Sector
net External % 38.2 32.4 22.1 21.0 20.0
net Domestic % 52.8 46.3 48.3 46 45
total net Dept / GNP (%) 91 78.7 70.4 67 65
RESERVES (USD bn)
Total International Reserves 32.1 37.8 48.5 57.7 n/a
Central Bank Reserves 18.7 26.7 33.6 34.9 n/a
MONETARY EXPOSURES (USD bn)
TL Deposits 32.8 37.9 57.6 78.1 n/a
FX Deposits 41.2 43.9 48.3 61.8 n/a
CONSOLIDATED BUDGET (USD bn)
Revenues 35.6 46.1 72.0 82.2 87.1
Expenditures 55.7 70.5 100.8 104.9 107.1
Budget Balance / gnp (%) -17.0 -15.0 -11.2 -7.1 -6.3
primary surplus / GnP (%) consolidated budget 4.8 2.4 5.0 5.0 5.0
primary surplus / GnP (%) public sector 5.5 4.0 6.0 7.0 6.5
INTEREST RATES (%)
NOMINAL INTEREST RATE (AVER.) 97.0 63.0 45.0 26.0 17.0
REAL INTEREST RATE (EX-ANTE) 36.0 30.0 30.5 14.0 8.0
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE (%) 8.4 10.3 10.5 10.0 9.5
*Estimates