The Roundtable Meeting with the Turkish Government organised for the 16th time within the framework of the Economist Conferences by the Economist Group was held at the Istanbul Hyatt Regency Hotel on Wednesday, 25th June. The main lecturers being the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Babacan, Economy Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Industry Zafer Çağlayan, Sabancı Holding Chairperson Güler Sabancı, Economist Intelligence Unit EMEA Vice Director Delia Meth-Cohn, and EnerjiSA Vice Chairperson Bernhard Raberger, at the Meeting several political and economic issues were deliberated on.
At the session which was opened by Delia Meth-Cohn, and attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and open to the press, discussion was conducted under the heading “New Reform Efforts,” in respect of the obstacles to be looked after and encountered by the administration during the period of the new government, political outlook for Turkey, relations with the EU and the Armed Forces, and economic growth.
And at the other sessions closed to press, which were attended by representatives from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Egypt, Germany, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Turkey, UK and UAE, leaders from the business world and experts of economy; ideas were exchanged on topics such as Turkey’s situation in a global framework and in terms of the EU accession, privatisation, informal economy, taxes, international shortage of loans, micro-economic reforms, and the Turkish energy policy.
Having attended the 16th Economist Roundtable Meeting as a panellist, Sabancı Holding Chairperson Güler Sabancı said in her statement: “We trust in the future of Turkey, and go on investing. We are sure that the uncertainty will disappear in the short term, and growth will continue in the middle and long. Journey to Europe must continue; our friendship and the business world related with Turkey must support us.”
Sabancı Holding Energy Group President and Enerjisa Chairperson Selahattin Hakman said that they would achieve an installed capacity of at least 5000 MW until the year 2015 in order to survive the energy supply bottleneck of Turkey. “In cooperation with our partner Verbund, we do steadily progress in the path of improving businesses of generation, distribution, wholesale and retail trade of electrical power in Turkey. A rapid improvement of the liberal market structure in the Turkish energy market by encompassing the energy generation and distribution privatisations will enable us to increase our contribution to the solution of the future troubles in energy supply,” Hakman added.
Purpose of the meetings having been organised under the name Economist Conferences since 1956 is to develop the ways and means of understanding and communication between the international companies, and governments. Main sponsor being the Sabancı Holding Company, the 16th Roundtable Meeting was also sponsored by EnerjiSA. The communications consultancy services for the Meeting were provided by Mmd Corporate, Public Affairs & Public Relations Consultants, and the press support by Dünya Newspaper.