ANKARA - State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said that he stressed that free trade zones should serve Turkey more, have more share in world trade, and their standards should be increased in his meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) technical delegation.
The IMF technical delegation which held meetings in Turkey before the sixth review met with State Minister Kursad Tuzmen.
Following the meeting, Tuzmen told reporters that the delegation worked on making Turkish taxation system more efficient and therefore dealt with free zones.
Tuzmen said that the technical delegation visited Aegean Free Zone and found it very impressing.
State Minister Tuzmen expressed pleasure with that objective evaluation.
He explained initiatives launched so far to turn free zones into technoparks in the future and make some free zones logistic centers, Tuzmen said.
When a reporter said that the IMF wanted to lift tax exemption in free zones and asked about his stance, Tuzmen said that the IMF technical delegation worked on the issue.
Tuzmen said that he told the IMF delegation that they would do their best to better conditions of free zones.
''I got the impression that there is no need for change in current system of free zones. Also, there is no need for change in taxation system of free zones,'' Tuzmen stated.
Tuzmen noted that making the taxation system efficient in Turkey was the final target of IMF.
The IMF delegation did not have any problems with the working system of the free zones, Tuzmen said.
But, he stated, the delegation said that they would continue their efforts on taxation system.
Noting that 3 thousand 600 companies were working in free zones, Tuzmen said that the free zones would have a trade volume of almost 13 billion U.s. dollars this year.
Tuzmen stated that 40 percent of commercial goods produced in those zones were exported while the rest 60 percent were imported.
He told the IMF officials that the mentioned zones were open to every company, Tuzmen added.
(BRC) 17.09.2003