ANKARA: A presidential system in Turkey will make it easier for the government to take decisions and boost the economy, Finance Minister Naci Agbal told Reuters, saying the new Cabinet is as focused on the investment climate as on changing the constitution. In an interview hours after being reappointed to the new Cabinet late on Tuesday, Agbal said the government would take “swift and bold” economic decisions this year and promised reforms — which many investors say are overdue — to boost exports and employment.
Investors are concerned that reform momentum will become more sluggish under new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has promised to introduce the executive presidential system that Erdogan wants.
Agbal dismissed such worries, saying a reform package on financial markets and the real economy would be presented to the Cabinet soon, adding that he would do “whatever it takes” to attract foreign investors. “Improving the investment and production environment is as important to us as making a new constitution and introducing the presidential system,” he said in an interview at his office in Ankara. “We will especially work on attracting foreign investors to Turkey… we will do whatever it takes legally to attract them within this year.”
The reappointment of Agbal and of Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, an anchor of investor confidence who has been in charge of economic policy, helped to reassure financial markets. Still, the new administration’s focus on winning popular support for the presidential system is seen as an obstacle to progress on economic reforms.
Investors want measures to boost the savings rate, liberalise the labour market and develop a higher-value manufacturing sector to reduce reliance on imports. Turkey also needs to lure foreign investment to plug a yawning current account deficit of around 4.5 per cent of the GDP and finance its heavily indebted companies.
