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ERKUT YÜCAOĞLU Bu üç alanın çok büyük fonlara ihtiyacı var, ve Türkiye bütçesi Dünya Bankası’nın desteğiyle bunu karşılamaya çalışıyor. Ekonomik Politikalar Ekonominin serbestleşmesi Türkiye’de çok etkin bir rol oynadı. Bu hükümet ekonominin daha da serbestleşmesi için çaba gösterdi. Serbest siyaset serbest ekonomiyle el ele yürür; buna bağlı olarak TÜSİAD 1990’ların ortalarında Türkiye’de demokrasi standartlarının nasıl yükseltilebileceği konusunda geniş araştırmalar ve çalışmalar yaptı. Mevzuata ilişkin 120 maddeyi ele alan bir ön çalışma yapıldı. Cezai yasalar vs. dahil anayasayla ilgili bu 120 madde, kamuoyunda enine boyuna tartışıldı. 1990 yılı sonunda TÜSİAD gidişat hakkında bir rapor düzenlemeye karar verdiğinde, bu üç alanın üçte birinin ele alınmış olduğu görüldü. Kalan %40 meclis gündemindeydi, gerisi ise kamuoyunda tartışılıyordu. Türkiye’nin siyasi reform gündemi büyük ölçüde AB üyeliğine ilişkin politik kriterlerle bağdaşıyor. Türk iş dünyası yukarıdakilerin tümünde yapılacak reform ve değişiklikleri hararetle destekliyor. Kemalizm 1914’den 1923’e kadar tek bir amaç vardı; Türkiye’yi korumak. Birinci Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra oynanan büyük oyunda topraklar paylaşılıyor; Türkiye ise varlığını sürdürmek için mücadele veriyordu. Mustafa Kemal bu şartlar içinde ortaya çıktı. Bu yüzden Kemalizm’in çok iyi anlaşılması gerekiyor. Atatürk bir ülke yaratmak için dokuz yıl mücadele etmiş büyük bir liderdir. Daha sonra ülkeyi batılılaştırmak için tamamlanan ve tamamlanamayan birçok reform yapmıştır. Ancak, Türkiye o zaman cumhuriyet için vazgeçilmez iki kavram benimsemiştir: Laiklik ve vatanın bölünmez bütünlüğü. Bundan sonra Türkiye yasalarını Batı’dan alma yoluna gitti; medeni kanunu İsviçre’den, idari yasaları Fransa’dan ve cezai yasaları İtalya’dan aldı. Bu yasalar benimsendi ve 12 milyon nüfusla yeni bir ülke yaratıldı. Dokuz yıllık mücadele Türkiye’ye 2 milyon kişiye mal oldu. Nüfusun %90’ı çiftçiydi. Sanayi yoktu. Her şeyin yeniden yapılanması gerekiyordu. Türkiye petrol kaynağı olan topraklarını kaybetmiş, stratejik önemi bulunan bazı topraklarını da müttefikleri almıştı. Türkiye yoktan var etmek zorundaydı. Bu yüzden ülkenin yönetimi, dolayısıyla Kemalizm, çok önemliydi. Avrupa’nın diğer ülkeleri 20’li ve 30’lu yıllarda çeşitli değişimlerden geçerken Türkiye kabuğundan çıkmadan demokrasinin kapılarını açmaya çalışıyordu. Türkiye, ne yazık ki, iki konuda treni kaçırdı. Biri daha önce de sözü edildiği gibi eğitim, diğeri ise daha dengeli bir hukuk sistemi oluşturmak. Birey ve devlet arasında bir denge kurulabilseydi, bu iş dünyasının işini çok kolaylaştırırdı. İş dünyasının 1970’lerde serbest ekonomi hareketinde girişimci rol oynamasının nedeni budur. İş dünyası, 1980’li ve 1990’lı yıllarda kurumlar, özel sektör ve devlet arasındaki dengenin, birey ve devlet arasında yeni bir dengeyi de kapsaması gerektiğini anlamaya başladı. TÜSİAD bu yüzden yukarıda sözü edilen dört ana konudaki siyasi reform gündemi ile meşgul oluyor. Buna bağlı olarak, yapılan değişiklikler vatandaş ile devlet arasında yeni dengeler sağlamaya başladı. Bu anlamda, Türkiye’de katılım sürecinde, Kürt sorunu dahil, bireysel ve kültürel özgürlüklerin artması gerektiğinin anlaşılması büyük önem taşımaktadır. Türkiye’de işadamları işlerindeki büyümenin daha da hızlı olması ümidiyle geleceğe bakarken, Avrupa’daki birçok yabancı şirketle diyaloglarını sürdürecekler. Bu yabancı şirketler nihayet on yıl sonra, büyümeye yönelik girişimlerini, ortak girişimlerini ve bunların karşılıklı avantajlarını değerlendirirken Türkiye’yi de dikkate alıyorlar. ERKUT YÜCAOĞLU: “THE PRIORITIES FOR THE TURKISH BUSINESS COMMUNITY” 1999 was an unfortunate year for Turkey. The Turkish economy went down and minus six GDP growth was experienced. Half of this was due to the earthquake and the expenditures that it brought. The other half, however, had to do with the crises taking place in the rest of the world (the Far East, followed by the Russian collapse). Funds that were in the country and earmarked for emerging country funds left Turkey because many people believed that Turkey would be the next defaulting country. This happened at the end of 1998 and the beginning of 1999 and, therefore, all of a sudden funding channels closed for the Turkish banking system. The Turkish banking community turned to the domestic market to raise funds. A financial market into which the government was already selling $5-6 billion dollars of bonds each month because of their own deficit system. Finally, interest rates increased dramatically despite the fact that inflation was coming down and the consumer stopped buying. Turkey went into experiencing a serious recession. As things were beginning to stabilise towards the middle of the year Turkey suffered a serious earthquake which brought other recessionary behaviour into the markets. Moreover, with the capture of Abdullah OCALAN, tourism suffered too. Therefore, all of these things brought together makes 1999 a very unforgettable year for all the wrong reasons. However, more positively, a new coalition emerged from the elections with the Nationalist Party, the Social Democrats and a Centre Right Party coming together. What was good about this new government was the fact that for the first time in ten years Turkey was moving into political stability. The government had a majority in the Parliament and started its programme with an agenda which the business community thought was very much in line with the true priorities of the country - both politically and economically. Up until the 1999 Presidential elections Turkey saw some 90 pieces of legislation moving though the Parliament - something previously unheard of. This resulted in some very bold moves towards a reform process. This process was supported by the Helsinki Summit decision. That again put a new dimension on the business community’s vision for Turkey and finally the economic reform process was tied to strict programmes with the IMF and the World Bank and Turkey is now starting to achieve things previously not believed possible such as the rapid pace of privatisation (in four months more was carried out than in the last ten years). On the revenue and expenditure side real deficit is shrinking. The government is determined to carry out this three-year programme successfully and the programme has the support of all the various segments of Turkish society including business. However, this does not mean that things are getting easier for business. It must be understood that pegging a currency for an eighteen month period means that competitiveness becomes a major issue. However, Turkey is not unused to competition as it has been in a Customs Union for four and a half years and also has an open economy. This commitment to the standards of European business was an initiative led not only by the government but also from the business community - to show Europe that Turkey will compete under the same rules without any financial assistance. This is something that no other EU member state has done or which no other candidate state is ready to do. This has to be noted as a very special feature of whatever programmes are constructed for Turkey’s integration into the EU. Turkish entrepreneurs have big challenges ahead of them. Once the foundations are laid for an economic programme, Turkey has to build growth on these foundations and sustain it. Of course growth goes hand in hand with productivity and the business community has now begun to look at new strategies including many issues that relate to company mergers, new legislation for increasing competitiveness, technology, and e-commerce. Challenges TÜSİAD has been a member of UNICE for many years and has already been involved in the pursuit of European integration. Before the Helsinki Summit TÜSİAD visited twelve member states and talked to opinion makers. All in all, TÜSİAD met with about 300 opinion makers with various degrees of enthusiasm vis-à-vis Turkey’s accession to the EU. It must be stated that there was a group which believed that Turkey does not belong in the EU (30%). However, 60% of the people met were more critical, particularly regarding Turkey’s human rights and democracy records but they were also open enough to sit down and debate whether or not Turkey will be an asset for Europe. What Should Europe Do? Business does not want funds - it will find a way to compete, to go into joint ventures, to make mergers and to follow the road of globalisation. Europe needs to show Turkish people that there is merit to integration with Europe. If the people of Turkey are to feel trickles of prosperity from Europe, then education is a number one area where Europe should provide funds for programmes in the coming years. Europe must show dedication to the educational reform process in Turkey in the following three areas These three areas need incredibly large funds which the Turkish budget, with some assistance from the World Bank, is trying to meet. Economic Policy Economic liberalisation has been very effective in Turkey. This government has also done many things to further liberalise the economy. Political liberalisation goes hand in hand with economic liberalisation and, therefore, with this in mind, in the mid-1990s TÜSİAD carried out extensive studies on how to increase standards of democracy in Turkey. There was an initial reference study done which indicated about 120 items in the legal code. Within these 120 reference items dealing with the constitutional laws, penal code, etc there was a lot of debate in society. By the end of the year when TÜSİAD decided to compile a progress report at the end of 1990, it was discovered that a third of these areas had already been addressed. The remaining 40% was in the Parliament and the rest was being debated in society. Turkey’s political reform agenda coincides to a large extent with the political criteria for EU membership. The Turkish business community is pushing for reform and change on all of the above. Kemalism From 1914 until 1923, the only thing that was done was the protection of Turkey. While the big game was being played after the First World War and territories were being divided up, Turkey was fighting for existence. This is therefore the environment into which Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came. Therefore Kemalism has to be understood very well. Atatürk was a leader that led a nine-year vocation to create a country. He then proceeded to turn the country to the west with a lot of complete or incomplete reforms. However, Turkey then adopted two unchangeable pillars for the republic: secularity and unity of the state. Turkey then proceeded to take her laws from the west - civil code from Switzerland, administrative law from France and the penal code from Italy. Therefore all these laws were taken and a new country of 12 million people was created. Nine years of fighting cost Turkey 2 million people. 90% of these people were farmers. There was no industry. Everything had to be restructured. Turkey had lost all of its oil territories, a lot of strategic land was taken up by the allies and Turkey had to reconstruct everything from scratch. This is why the state was of utmost importance - hence Kemalism. While the rest of Europe was going through changes in the 20s and 30s, Turkey just stayed in its shell trying to open up the doors to democracy. Unfortunately, Turkey missed two boats. One in education, as already mentioned. The other in making the collection of laws and the legal base more balanced. A balance between the individual and the state would have helped the business community greatly. This is why the business community initiated the big economic liberalisation move in the 1970s. In the 80s and 90s the business community started to see that this balance between the institutions, private enterprise and the state needed to be extended to a new balance between individuals and the state. This is why TÜSİAD has taken up the political reform agenda in the four topics already identified above. Therefore the change process has started to create a new balance between the citizen and the state. To that effect it is of the utmost importance that the accession process recognises that Turkey has to increase its individual and cultural liberties including the Kurdish issue. Businessmen of Turkey will keep looking into the future for accelerated growth for its businesses and continue dialogue with a lot of foreign companies in Europe which, after ten years, have put Turkey on their map for their enterprises, joint ventures and for mutual benefit for creating growth.  Elegans'a mail |
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