Speech by
Honorable Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey

5 May 2005
Istanbul, Turkey

Distinguished President of the Asian Development Bank,

Esteemed Guests,

Distinguished Members of the Press,

I would like to extend my deepest regards to all of you.

Welcome to Istanbul, you honored us.

I would like to greet you, distinguished guests and also Istanbul, hosting this great encounter in the cross section of Asia and Istanbul and endorsing our friends.

Istanbul is not only a center combining the continents but also a central symbol combining and synthesizing the civilizations.

I wish for the fruitful outcomes of our exciting encounter, the decisions taken here, the consultations made and the ideas put forward for both our countries and all of the people in the world.

And in the preface of my remarks, I would also like to greet the big continent Asia, the source of the ancient civilizations, with all its cities and its peoples.

Distinguished Guests,

The disaster of earthquake and tsunami, which occurred in some of the Asian countries last year, left deep and unforgettable traces in the heart of Turkish people as it did in the heart of all Asian people.

The Turkish people, who suffered for the same reasons, are by no means unfamiliar with the suffering of these people who became homeless, lost relatives and friends, face hunger and thirst and they successfully mobilized all their resources.

When I paid a visit to the region just after the disaster, I felt the pain of the Asia, our Asian brothers and sisters, first of all as a human and as a father.

And as a former mayor of Istanbul, I personally observed the fact that the infrastructure in the regions has been exposed to such a big destruction.

This devastating disaster taught lessons for both the Asian countries and for the whole world. Beyond the messages of consolidation, brotherhood, unity and integrity, the most significant lesson that we have to draw from this disaster is the fact that we have understood that it is an inevitable responsibility for everyone to ensure the careful and fair utilization of the resources in the world.

The objective of the economy should be, first of all, the happiness and welfare of the people.

An understanding of economy which is not human-oriented, based on limitless and irresponsible consumption and wildly exploits the resources of the world will make our world unlivable in the very future.

We know that such an understanding of economy, above all, does not accord with Asia, the heir of civilizations, and the lifestyles, beliefs and customs of the Asian people.

We must alter this course and approximate the world to an understanding of economy which is fair and sustainable.

In order to achieve this, we should raise our voice.

Distinguished Participants,

Esteemed Guests,

We are a member of a culture and civilization family that does even not accept to sleep full when our neighbors are hungry.

We come from a tradition that we cannot remain indifferent when the children are crying in Ache, Phuket, Penang, Kabul and Baghdad.

We can never be just an onlooker to the environment becoming polluted, the forests being depleted, the water resources being drained and the world publicly becoming an unlivable place.

So in this context, Asian Development Bank assumed an historical responsibility.

This responsibility is on our shoulders both institutionally and individually.

We must spread the light rising from Asia and share and adopt the problems and sufferings of Asia as well as its prosperity.

I believe that the role of the Asian Development Bank, which contributes much especially to the fighting against poverty and development, cooperation and solidarity of the Asian countries, will and should increase in the region.

I would like to reiterate with this opportunity that we, as Turkey, put much importance on the mission of and give support to the Asian Development Bank.

Esteemed Guests,

Distinguished participants,

Turkey is a country that has strong links with a wider geography.

In this vein, Turkey is center that combines Asia and Europe, and the opening gate of Asia to Europe.

By becoming a member of the European Union, Turkey will not only contribute to the economic, social and legal structure of Europe but will also become an important center for communication of the Asian countries with Europe.

We know that we have a responsibility coming from the history in terms of ensuring stability and peace in our region.

We, as the Government, are extremely sensitive and determined for fulfilling this responsibility.

The stability, prosperity and accumulation of Turkey will bring stability and dynamism to Europe as well as to Asia, the wide geography that we live together.

For this reason, we are building our economic and foreign policies on a multi-dimensional and dynamic base.

Within a short period of two and a half years, we have initiated a reform process both in foreign policy and in economy, which the whole world appreciates.

Turkey gained its position in the front ranks among the fastest growing countries with a ratio of 9.9 in 2004.

Our growth rate in 2002 has been 7.9 and 5.9 in 2003.

This year, we have determined our growth rate as 5%.

We have settled many chronic economic problems of Turkey that lasted for tens of years to a large extent in a short period of time.

We have signed under many astonishing improvements as regards to inflation, debt burden, interest, tourism and foreign trade incomes.

While the export we carried out with Near and Middle East countries in 2001 was 4.6 billion dollars, this figure reached 10.5 billion dollars in 2004. There has been an increase of 128% in three years.

Of course, even this is not enough.

I believe that our foreign trade with Asian countries will rise to the desired level and the foreign trade on its own will reach to level of 100 billion dollar in the forthcoming years.

Another subject of importance is the progress we made in the investments, particularly in the international investments.

In Turkey, the private sector investments increased 30% in 2003 and 49.3% in 2004.

And the increase in the performance of Turkey in terms of international investments has now been accepted by all the economic environments.

With a new law enacted in 17 December 2003, it is now very easy to invest and establish a company in Turkey.

The results of our endeavors have slowly begun to bear fruits.

According to the recent researches, today Turkey is among the five leading countries of the world in terms of the speed of the companies to start businesses.

From this date till the end of December 2004, a total of 3.095 foreign capital companies have been established.

The amount of foreign direct investment, which did not exceed 1 billion dollar in the decade before June 2003 apart from some exceptions, has reached 1 billion 694 million dollar in 2003 and 2 billion and 568 million dollar at the end of 2004.

Turkey is moving ahead with giant steps in the way to be the center of intercontinental trade with its rising economy, its democracy of advanced standards, its environment of stability and trust.

Turkey presents unique investment opportunities for Europe as well as Asia, removes all the barriers before investment and displays a very significant graph of success as regards to becoming a production and investment center.

I sincerely believe that the entrepreneurs in our Asian friend countries will make best use of this opportunity and take the subject of investment to Turkey to their agenda.

Distinguished Participants,

Esteemed Guests,

As I have mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, the Asian Development Bank assumed a historical responsibility for the reduction of poverty throughout the world.

We fully believe that this holy responsibility will be fulfilled with the endeavors of the Honorable President and the member countries.

As turkey, we will always be on your side in this struggle.

As I end my remarks with these feelings and opinions, I would like to thank you for listening to me.

Once again, I would like to welcome you to our country and Istanbul, wish for the success of Asian Development Bank 38th General Assembly and extend my best regards to all.