ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended an award ceremony held for the Turkish contractors who were listed among "world's 225 top international contractors" in Istanbul on Thursday.
Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Erdogan said Turkish contractors were working under hard circumstances in places like Afghanistan and African countries.
Erdogan said they listened to the problems of investors, entrepreneurs, workers and employers inside and outside Turkey and found solutions.
PM Erdogan said his ministers and he travelled the foreign countries since 2002 to tell about Turkey's potential to the world.
"But what is our struggle for, what is our goal? Frankly speaking it would have been easier for us to watch the things happening from Ankara. There have been ones who had done it so in the past. But we couldn't take that path. If we had done so we couldn't reach this point," he said.
"If Turkey had become the 17th biggest economy of the world, this is as a result of the determined steps we took towards democracy. If Turkey has a role in its region as an element of stability, this is the work of its strong economy," said the Turkish Prime Minister.
Erdogan noted that Turkey had come a long way in its struggle with inflation, broken records in exports and become a center of attraction for international investments.
"This is thanks to our political stability. If you don't look at the picture as a whole you won't be able to analyze the situation," said Erdogan.
If Turkey is one of the fastest growing economies of the world, it is so thanks to the private sector. And so we will continue to do our part to knock off all its (private sector) shackles, Erdogan added.