Turkish Economy - News & Updates

[Attila the Hun]

Finance Ministry initiates works on legal infrastructure of Istanbul's Finance Center

The ground-breaking process for the Istanbul International Finance Center is finally been completed and it is now time for the project to find its legal ground. Finance Minister Ağbal announced that the ministry is working to define a legal infrastructure that will draw in international financiers with new instruments


Finance Minister Naci Ağbal said the ministry initiated studies on a draft law on the Istanbul International Finance Center (IIFC). Ground has been broken for the IIFC last week as the foundations of two buildings have been laid down. Now, Istanbul's new center for finance is trying to find its legal ground.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) Ağbal stated that the government introduced new financial instruments step by step, including the founding of the Sovereign Welfare Fund (SWF), real estate certificates, and Islamic finance tools, in an attempt to intensify Turkey's financial markets. Underlining that these steps are important for capital markets, the distribution of capital and promoting savings in the long term, the minister said the construction of the IIFC is not enough to invigorate financial markets on its own. He added, "If the Istanbul Finance Center will be an assertive project for the future, it must offer the same opportunities as other competitive financial markets and even surpass them." To this end, Turkey will make tax burdens on financial market transactions more competitive than other countries.

According to the minister, the government needs to launch some incentives and tax advantages to attract qualified investors and provide guarantee for their financial transactions in the country. The draft law on the IIFC aims to offer opportunities and advantages to financial players and attract international financial institutions to Turkey.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Capital Market Board (CMB) and Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) buildings, developed by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) as a part of the Istanbul International Finance Center (IIFC) in Istanbul's Ataşehir district was held last week.

At the IIFC, which is said will turn Istanbul into "a regional and a global financial center," 50,000 people will be employed and it will have 25,000 daily visitors once opened. The project is aimed at developing the conditions required for Istanbul to rank among the leading financial centers of the world. More precisely, the project aims at developing a legal infrastructure up to international standards, adding to diversity of financial products and services, simplifying and increasing the efficiency of the taxation system, improving the regulatory and supervisory framework, strengthening the physical and technological infrastructure, providing a training infrastructure to meet the requirement for qualified human resources and creating an organizational structure that will realize promotional and monitoring activities worldwide.

Among the joint infrastructure work being launched in the scope of the financial center include an administrative building, a police station, a health center, fire department, continuing education center, various academic courses, a mosque, a nursery, an underground parking lot and a trestle will all be built, bringing together joint infrastructure work in the financial center for financial sector giants like the Capital Market Board (SPK), the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), Ziraat Bank and Vakıfbank. The infrastructural work also includes environmental planning to be completed in tandem with the finance center by the first quarter of 2019.

http://www.dailysabah.com/finance/2...al-infrastructure-of-istanbuls-finance-center

 

[Attila the Hun]

DHA Photo

A town in Turkey's Black Sea region won a legal battle against a thermal power plant project and declared the site a natural park on Sudnay.

After a private firm made attempts to establish a thermal power plant that would use imported coal as fuel in the Terme district of northern Samsun province, locals led by the Terme Nature Platform, along with the support of the district and province municipality and Greenpeace, appealed to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanism for the environmental impact assessment process to be canceled.

Around 25,000 petitions were sent to the ministry from the town with a population of 73,000, and several mass protests were staged against the project.

The ministry's evaluation commission ended the environmental impact assessment process following Terme Municipality's objections to the project.

Following the ministry's decision, the municipality declared a 563-hectare area near the Gölyazı and Gölardı villages as "Amazon Nature Park," as a reference to the ancient female warrior tribe believed to have lived in the Samsun region.

The area is located at the eastern end of Yeşilırmak River Delta, an important nature preservation zone and the second largest delta in Turkey's Black Sea coast after the Kızılırmak River Delta. Due to the mountainous nature of the Black Sea region added with thick forests, the delta is also important for agriculture and contains an important portion of arable land in the region.

Terme Mayor Şenol Kul said that the area will greatly serve to the district's tourism with its 243 bird species, endemic plants, longoz forests and beaches. Kul added that the future of the district lies in agriculture, commerce and tourism.

Kul also thanked officials from the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, Samsun Governor Ibrahim Şahin and Samsun Metropolitan Mayor Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz for their support.

Mayor Kul added that the area was handed over to the Samsun Metropolitan Municipality through a protocol and works to establish a bird observatory building have started.

The park will also include a beach that will be operated with necessary facilities, a 37-hectare area for pheasants and a 40-hectare area for jades

http://www.dailysabah.com/nation/20...ject-site-a-natural-park-after-legal-struggle

 

[Zulkarneyn]

Finance Ministry initiates works on legal infrastructure of Istanbul's Finance Center

The ground-breaking process for the Istanbul International Finance Center is finally been completed and it is now time for the project to find its legal ground. Finance Minister Ağbal announced that the ministry is working to define a legal infrastructure that will draw in international financiers with new instruments


Finance Minister Naci Ağbal said the ministry initiated studies on a draft law on the Istanbul International Finance Center (IIFC). Ground has been broken for the IIFC last week as the foundations of two buildings have been laid down. Now, Istanbul's new center for finance is trying to find its legal ground.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) Ağbal stated that the government introduced new financial instruments step by step, including the founding of the Sovereign Welfare Fund (SWF), real estate certificates, and Islamic finance tools, in an attempt to intensify Turkey's financial markets. Underlining that these steps are important for capital markets, the distribution of capital and promoting savings in the long term, the minister said the construction of the IIFC is not enough to invigorate financial markets on its own. He added, "If the Istanbul Finance Center will be an assertive project for the future, it must offer the same opportunities as other competitive financial markets and even surpass them." To this end, Turkey will make tax burdens on financial market transactions more competitive than other countries.

According to the minister, the government needs to launch some incentives and tax advantages to attract qualified investors and provide guarantee for their financial transactions in the country. The draft law on the IIFC aims to offer opportunities and advantages to financial players and attract international financial institutions to Turkey.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Capital Market Board (CMB) and Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) buildings, developed by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) as a part of the Istanbul International Finance Center (IIFC) in Istanbul's Ataşehir district was held last week.

At the IIFC, which is said will turn Istanbul into "a regional and a global financial center," 50,000 people will be employed and it will have 25,000 daily visitors once opened. The project is aimed at developing the conditions required for Istanbul to rank among the leading financial centers of the world. More precisely, the project aims at developing a legal infrastructure up to international standards, adding to diversity of financial products and services, simplifying and increasing the efficiency of the taxation system, improving the regulatory and supervisory framework, strengthening the physical and technological infrastructure, providing a training infrastructure to meet the requirement for qualified human resources and creating an organizational structure that will realize promotional and monitoring activities worldwide.

Among the joint infrastructure work being launched in the scope of the financial center include an administrative building, a police station, a health center, fire department, continuing education center, various academic courses, a mosque, a nursery, an underground parking lot and a trestle will all be built, bringing together joint infrastructure work in the financial center for financial sector giants like the Capital Market Board (SPK), the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), Ziraat Bank and Vakıfbank. The infrastructural work also includes environmental planning to be completed in tandem with the finance center by the first quarter of 2019.

http://www.dailysabah.com/finance/2...al-infrastructure-of-istanbuls-finance-center

Daily Sabah needs some journalists who can actually write gramatically coherent sentences in English

 

[Targon]

Surprising how they were not accused of being traitors.

 

[Baybars Han]

Sometimes this objections are pure stupidity. They suddenly become nature lovers.

 

[cabatli_53]

@Ottoman123 Stop opening non defence related threads in main section. There is a sticky Turkish Economy thread and you can collect such news in there.

 

[Attila the Hun]

New-house sales surge 17.8 pct in September as Turkey continues steady upward climb

House sales in Turkey surged 17.8 percent in September, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute Monday.

House sales soared 17.8 percent year-on-year in September to reach 108,918 units sold.

Mortgaged house sales throughout Turkey totaled 4,083 units, up 46.7 percent year-on-year, indicating the fact that more buyers preferred to purchase a home though home loans due to attractive interest rates.

In last August, many commercial banks introduced cheaper loans for home sales after the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged them to contribute towards Turkey's economic revival by providing cheap loans in wake of the July 15 coup attempt.

House sales with mortgage had a 38.6 percent share in all house sales in Turkey, according to the report.

However, house sales to foreigners went down by 27.8 percent-1,276 units sold-compared to the same month of the previous year.

Top destinations for foreign investors were Antalya with 359 sales, Istanbul (323), Bursa (82) and Aydin (69).

http://www.dailysabah.com/real-esta...ember-as-turkey-continues-steady-upward-climb

 

[Attila the Hun]

Turkey exports fish to 15 countries from landlocked Kahramanmaraş province

Fish breeding in the dams of the landlocked southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaraş are exported to 15 countries across the world, daily Hürriyet has reported.

The many tons of certificated fish produced in Kahramanmaraş, play an important role among the city’s export items, and breeders are now trying to increase both production and export figures, despite the city having no shore.

Mehmet Aras, the Kahramanmaraş head of the Association of Aquaculture Breeder and Producers, said fish exports were rising every year, confounding the Anatolian province’s shoreless geography.

“We export almost 5,000 tons of fish and related products every year. Kahramanmaraş’s fish export figures reached 35 million Turkish liras in 2015. This rose to 30 million liras in the first nine months of 2016,” Aras added.

The provincial director of the Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry, İhsan Emiralioğlu, said they particularly exported caviar and seed fish.

“Almost 41 tons of caviar was exported in 2016,” he said.

Kahramanmaraş hosts to the Ceyhan River, which leads to the Mediterranean.

Fish breeding in facilities on the river’s dams in the province are exported to Romania, Poland, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhistan, China, U.S., Iraq and Iran.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tu...ince.aspx?pageID=238&nID=105291&NewsCatID=344

 

[DavidSling]

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 14

By Orkhan Quluzade – Trend:

Turkey wants to connect Israeli gas supplies to the Southern Gas Corridor project, said Cemil Ertem, advisor to the Turkish president, in his interview with the TRT Haber news channel Oct. 14.

Ertem noted that Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak discussed this issue during the meeting with his Israeli counterpart on Oct. 13.

He added also that energy agreements between the two countries can be a catalyst for solving problems in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East regions.

On the sidelines of the 23rd World Energy Congress in Istanbul, Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak and his Israeli counterpart Yuval Steinitz discussed the possibility of a gas pipeline’s construction between the two countries.

Currently, Israel’s proven gas reserves are estimated at 900 billion cubic meters. The country’s promising gas reserves are 2.2 trillion cubic meters, according to Steinitz. Meanwhile, total volume of Israel’s natural gas reserves is about three trillion cubic meters.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also join this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of TANAP and TAP.

---

http://en.trend.az/business/energy/2672380.html

 

[xenon54 out]

Welcome move, we shouldnt leave opportunities for the sake of others because nobody will do it for us either, we already lost enough for populism.

 

[DavidSling]

Welcome move, we shouldnt leave opportunities for the sake of others because nobody will do it for us either, we already lost enough for populism.

Bibi is flying to Azerbaijan soon to discuss the project

 

[xenon54 out]

Bibi is flying to Azerbaijan soon to discuss the project

Israel, Azerbaijan are two economic corridors far away from turmoils, at least for now, its positive to strenghten it.
Turkey lost a lot in Iraq and Syria it needs to be compensated.

 

[xenon54 out]

Ankara canvasses public opinion on new highway project connecting Istanbul to Aegean region

The Turkish government has started to canvassing public opinion regarding a major new highway project connecting Istanbul to the northern Aegean region.

The Kınalı-Tekirdağ-Çanakkale-Savaştepe Highway is planned to connect Istanbul with the Aegean province of Balıkesir through a bridge over Çanakkale, which will be dubbed “Gallipoli (Çanakkale) 1915 Bridge” in honor of the Ottoman victory in the battle of Gallipoli that began in April 1915.

The highway section is expected to cost around 9.9 billion Turkish Liras ($3.2 billion) and the bridge is expected to cost around 15 billion liras ($5 billion), senior officials said, adding that the environmental impact assessment report of the project has already been accepted by the related commissions.

Citizens will now be able to submit their recommendations and views to the Istanbul Environment and Urban Affairs Directorate or the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.

The highway will be 324-km long in total, excluding the bridge, which will be built upon a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

Around 6.3 billion square meters of lands will be expropriated for the entire project. According to data in the project file, some 4.5 billion square meters of this area is composed of agricultural fields, 1.7 billion square meters is forested area, and 91 million square meters is pasture land.

“The expropriation process may lead to some income losses among land owners, as their income sources will change. In this vein, they will be offered various business opportunities,” the project file stated, while noting that the project will increase land prices for affected areas.


Tender process ‘to start soon’

Transportation Minister Ahmet Arslan said a 3.6 km-long crossing tender for the bridge will be launched soon, daily Habertürk reported.

Arslan noted that Korean and Chinese companies have already shown interest in the $5 billion project.

Officials say the groundbreaking ceremony is planned to be held in March 2017.

Arslan had earlier said the project is planned to be comprised of 31 viaducts, five tunnels, 30 crossover roads, and 143 underpasses and overpasses in total.

 

[what]

Do we get some of that gas discounted? I mean there should be more in it for us then just transit fees.

 

[19887]

Nice.i love the axis israel-turkey-azerbaijan

Bibi is flying to Azerbaijan soon to discuss the project

When he will fly?