NEW YORK - State Minister Ali Babacan, who is recently in the United States, said on Wednesday that the date of signing the agreement on 8.5 billion dollars of U.S. loan was not definite yet.
Speaking in a news conference, State Minister Babacan said that the 8.5 billion dollars of loan to be received from the U.S. had certain political and economic conditions.
Babacan said that the U.S. wanted Turkey to continue implementing strong economic policies and to help in bringing independence to Iraq. Yet the loan was not related to the condition of Turkey's sending soldiers to Iraq, he added.
Babacan said that there was a 15-day waiting period to see if there were any objections to the loan from the U.S. Congress, adding that ''the agreement can either be signed during Dubai meeting or later.''
Babacan said that EU whose population got older would need Turkey more after 15-20 years, adding that EU membership carried great importance for Turkey in respect of better operation of democracy and human rights.
''If negotiations start with the EU in 2005, the negotiations could last for 3,5 years or 7 years,'' Babacan said.
When asked if the increasing population of Turkey constituted a problem in respect of its EU membership, Babacan said that ''our target is not to export workers to EU. We want EU to come to Turkey and invest.''
Babacan stressed that the U.S., Japan, Asian and EU countries were very interested in the State Economic Enterprises (SEEs), State Monopolies (TEKEL) and Turkish Petroleum Inc. (Tupras) which would be privatized. ''We hope to get the positive results of privatization within 6-12 months,'' he said.
Babacan stressed that this year Turkey's inflation target was 20 percent, and growth rate target was 5 percent.
Babacan said that the time of erasing six zeros from Turkish lira was not yet certain, adding that negotiations with Central Bank on the issue continued.
(Öª-AÖ) 11.09.2003