Turkey boosts investment by 11.8 pct in 2009
Posted by meb at September 5th, 2008
Turkish public investment spending will rise by 11.8 percent year-on-year to 36.9 billion lira ($29.66 billion) in 2009, Deputy Prime Minister Nazim Ekren said on Friday.
Ekren, who is in charge of economic coordination, told Reuters in an interview the government would push ahead with the privatisation of partly state-owned Halkbank this year if market conditions were favourable.
Turkey will hold municipal elections next year, and economists fear the pro-business, pro-reform government may soften fiscal austerity ahead of elections.
“Together with the southeastern Anatolian project, the central administrative investment will rise to 15.5 billion lira. Investment by local administrations will rise by 30 percent to 17.5 billion lira from 13.4 billion lira,” Ekren said.
“This will bring public investments to 36.9 billion lira in 2009 from 32.9 billion lira this year, meaning a 11.8 percent rise,” he said.
Ekren said the government should wait for the best market environment in Turkey and abroad to get the highest price for its assets before pushing for selling them off, said Ekren.
The government is yet to decide the sale strategy for Halkbank, he said.
“Halkbank is an important bank. The local or the foreign bank which will buy Halkbank will automatically be listed among the top five banks (in Turkey),” Ekren said.
Halkbank’s 25 percent stake was listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange in 2007 in what was Turkey’s largest ever initial public offering.
Ekren said the government would press ahead with the privatisation of the largest state bank Ziraat after the completion of the Halkbank sale.
The deputy prime minister said Turkey would always be an emerging markets star and attract global investors. Foreign direct investment has eased this year amid domestic political tensions and weakening global markets.
“Last year, our national income was $650 billion and this will reach $750 billion this year. No investors in the world can ignore an economy with this size and rising per capita income,” he said.
source: Hurriyet daily
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