ANKARA (AA) - ''From now on Turkey should take micro steps to increase employment together with rising productivity,'' said World Bank Turkey Director Andrew Vorkink.
Taking the floor at the opening of a conference on ''Macro-Economic Policies for Accession to EU'' which was held by Central Bank and Turkish Bilkent and German Bonn universities in Ankara, Vorkink said, ''Turkey has recorded great progress in the last 4 years. It has also recorded a high growth in the last 3 consecutive years.''
''Dynamic economic structure of Turkey and private sector will be the pushing force on the way to the EU. Decrease in inflation rates increased the confidence in Turkey,'' added Vorkink.
Vorkink noted, ''it is important to attract more foreign investments in 2005 for sustainability of macro-economic policies. Turkey should also establish an investment incentive institution.''
''In the last 20 years, population increased more than employment in Turkey. Increase in population is an opportunity. Working population will continue to increase until 2040. Increase in population will be both chance and difficulty as regards accession to the EU. Thus it is necessary to remove obstacles in employment, decrease taxes and develop collective agreement,'' said Vorkink.
He noted, ''direct foreign investment is also important to create new jobs. Private sector should develop. Productivity in several sectors is very low. Turkish small and medium scale enterprises provide 61 percent of jobs and their added value is 26.5 percent. This is an important inadequacy when compared with other countries. If traditional sectors are modernized, it will be possible to increase productivity in many sectors of Turkish economy.''
(GC-ULG)
2005-05-06