MÜSİAD President Abdurrahman Kaan released a written statement regarding the Economic Reform Package announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
President Kaan's statement is as follows:
In 2020, when developing countries displayed one of the worst growth performances in their history, the Turkish economy grew by 1.8 percent. At the same time, the 5.9 points of growth recorded in the final quarter of the year was also a serious source of motivation for 2021.
In these developments, the support and incentives that the Economic Stability Shield package announced in March of last year offered to the markets were clearly felt. Indeed, throughout 2020 the supports provided by the economic administration to the segments affected by the pandemic reached 10 percent of our national income, and the total support provided in cash alone exceeded TRY 45 billion.
Thus the Economic Stability Shield became a lifeline for the Turkish economy, which underwent a serious tremor with the shock created by Covid-19. In this context, the Reform Package announced today by our President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also been a highly gratifying development on behalf of the business world, indicating that the direction of economic activity will be kept positive in 2021.
As MÜSİAD, we too came together this past December with our Minister of Treasury and Finance Mr. Lütfi Elvan and our Minister of Justice Mr. Abdulhamit Gül and presented them with a set of 100 proposals addressing many issues, primarily working life, taxes and payments, incentives and supports, financing and the legal environment.
With this Reform Package, which we have seen presents a highly positive approach to many of the demands of the business world, we believe that the V-type recovery observed in the markets since the third quarter of last year will spread to many more sectors.
In particular, the income tax exemption provided to our low-income tradespeople and the removal of the declaration obligation will provide a serious increase in the business volume of our SMEs, which are the locomotive of our economy. Together with the announced supports, the resilience of the economy will increase in terms of public finance, the fight against inflation, the financial sector and the fight against the current account deficit.
Ensuring spending discipline, reducing waste in the public sector, rebuilding the budget and increasing efficiency in cash management will increase the contribution that public expenditures and investments make to economic growth.
Thanks to regulatory and supervisory structures such as the Sectoral Public Procurement Law, the Public-Private Sector Cooperation Law, the Wholesale Market Law and the Participation Finance Law that are planned to be enacted, and the Health Industry Directorate, the Software and Hardware Industry Directorate, the Central Monitoring Committee, the Price Stability Committee and the Risk Centre that are planned to be established, many areas from investments to finance and from technology and production to price stability will be developed.
In addition, we believe that the Presidential Economic Coordination Board and the Ministry of Treasury and Finance Financial Stability Committee that are planned to be created will, besides increasing public oversight and supervision, also make the coordination and consultation mechanism with non-public institutions more efficient.
With this Reform Package, which we believe will provide fresh resource inflows to the Turkish economy, rapid development will be observed in many parameters from domestic demand to investment expenditures. Thus the pace of recovery in economic activity, which has recently come relatively under pressure along with monetary tightening steps, will also gain momentum as of the second quarter of the year; and the Turkish economy will continue on its path of positive growth.