Babacan: There Is No Need For Any Doubt About Government Programme

ANKARA - State Minister Ali Babacan said on Friday that there was no need for any doubt about the programme which the government would implement regarding the targets of reviews, adding that ''the things we will do are clear now.''
Responding to questions of NTV tv channel, Babacan said that they re-determined the targets of review, adding that they targeted to have the sixth review at the end of October or the beginning of November, and the seventh review at the end of December or the beginning of January.
Noting that Turkey was one of the founder members of IMF, Babacan said that ''using credits is not a normal thing, this is a sign of disease. When we look at countries whose economies are sound, there is no such thing. We want to make Turkey borrow from normal markets without any need for signing a new stand-by agreement with IMF. Although many important incidents took place particularly in the first half of the year, the Treasury was very successful in foreign borrowing.''
''The thing that matters is to implement the economic programme in a stable and resolved way. As much as internal and external markets see our resolution about this issue, their expectations about the future of the Turkish economy will continue to improve,'' said Babacan.
Babacan stressed that they would focus on direct foreign investments from now on, adding that the foreign capital which came to Turkey to date was at symbolic level.
Recalling that they had the initiative of holding an Investment Council, Babacan said that they thought of holding such a meeting at the end of November or the beginning of December.
(Öª-AÖ) 01.08.2003