BURSA
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan attended the Uludag Economy Summit organized in the north-western province of Bursa.
Speaking at the summit, Ali Babacan stressed that "The fact that Turkey has kept its promises has made Turkey a rising brand in the world."
Babacan referred to the words of Coca Cola CEO Muhtar Kent who had said "A brand is a promise, a good brand is a promise kept."
"In the last decade, Turkey's reform program in the scope of EU accession process, economic performance through its economic transformation program, and fulfilling promises all carried Turkey to a different point" Babacan stated.
"I can say that the golden triangle came into existence as a result: the government, business world and NGOs" Babacan underlined.
"The latest economic crisis has shifted balance of economic strengths from the West to the East. In the next several decades, Asia and Africa will be highly important regions" Babacan said.
"No doubt, Europe, Japan and the US will continue to have an important share in global trade. However, economic strength continues to shift from the West to the East," Babacan emphasised.
Ali Babacan underlined that borders from the Balkans to the Gulf region, and from the Gulf region to Algeria and Morocco will begin to lose meaning.
"We insist on free trade which involves visa liberalizations, the free movement of individuals and free movement of products between countries", Babacan indicated.
"We want energy and funds to flow easily between countries" Babacan stated. "Such a case would be a 'win-win' scenario for all countries".
-Jobs, Syria, Kurdish issue-
As for the Turkey's recent performance, Ali Babacan noted that "in the past three years, 4.7 million more Turks have been employed".
"During this time, five million people lost jobs in the US and 6 million in the EU," Babacan underlined.
Touching on Turkish-Israeli relations, Babacan said that they hoped the next term with Israel would be one of solutions and not problems.
"We will display a firm attitude on Syria just as we have done on Israel. The Assad regime will sooner or later go away," Babacan said.
On the process of solution in Turkey, Ali Babacan underlined that everyone in Turkey will struggle through ideas. "There will be a struggle of ideologies," Babacan noted.
"We have always defended brotherhood and national unity. We defended embracing the whole society alongside common values and ideals," Babacan said.
We want every Turkish citizen to have the world's best implementation when it comes to freedoms, Babacan underlined.
Commenting on the EU, Ali Babacan emphasized that when the ground of joint economic interests weakened, the future of the political union became an issue for debates.
"The EU was a union established around common values. This fact should not be forgotten," Babacan said.
"We frequently remind our European friends that basic rights and freedoms, the rule of law, well functioning democracy are all values implemented in the 27-member bloc. Such universal values should not become a victim of the current economic crisis," Babacan stated.
"The EU is a peace project. It is a peace project for Europe. We believe that it would turn into a global peace project when Turkey becomes a member," Babacan also said.
