turkey will be going to the polls in

about three days on the 14th of May it's

one of the most critical and

consequential elections in the 100 Years

of Republican history one of the most

important matters in the electorates

mind is of course how this inflationary

spiral will be ended what kind of

policies will be implemented either by

the current rulers or if the opposition

wins by the cadres of the opposition

Coalition called the nation Alliance

today my guest is Dr kerim Rota

currently the deputy

chairman of

galaxies responsible for economic

policies Dr Rota welcome thank you

economic policy is one of the most

important methods for this for this

campaign and for these elections if the

opposition wins what are you proposing

to do to get us out of this quandary

thank you first of all I mean the first

promise that the nation Alliance is

giving to the public is

cutting getting back to inflation to

single digit again in two years time

unfortunately turkey is facing one of

the highest inflations in the world both

on the food side are and both on the

consumer

inflation so the promise is to go back

to single digit levels and of course we

are pretty much aware that at the moment

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Turkish wealth distribution and income

distribution is one of the worst levels

in history it is a trend in all over the

world but I mean Turkish distribution is

much much worse right now so we will

implement the policies to make the

income distribution better in a medium

term so the target is from two to five

years there you know financial markets

are concentrated in the short term

primarily

and when I read most of the commentary

on Turkey on the Turkish economy it's

really the level of the interest rate

and the level of the Turkish currency

whether it's overvalued or undervalued

and all that

and so for our audience maybe this is

one of the most important questions what

is your policy going to be vis-a-vis the

currency and vis-a-vis the interest

rates

first of all we have to close

immediately the Turkish credibility gap

there's a big credibility gap in the

government as well as on the central

bank brsa and all the corporations and

on the economy management so in order to

close that credibility gap Gap we have

to do things the first of all we have to

appoint proper people to those

corporations starting with the central

bank and say

afterwards we have to

implement a medium-term program

immediately a very credible medium term

program to gain the confidence of the

domestic investors as well as the

international

investors and of course we are targeting

stability in the effects market and as

well as on the interest rate Market on

40 turkey lost their markets in the last

six months periods the current FX Market

interest rate Market even the loan and

deposit Market is not functioning

the prices are not proper there prices

are not fair so we have to get back our

markets and in order to do that of

course we will announce a very decent

program and we have we will appoint a

very liable competent competent people

to the place well

the leader of the opposition Mr

kalistarol who is a candidate for

presidency

suggests that with the economic program

that you're likely to implement

upwards of maybe 300 billion dollars

will gradually come into into turkey and

that will actually put our

books back in Back Back in Balance how

do you propose to do that how are you

going to get the financial markets again

you talked about a credibility gap to

trust the Turkish management of the

economy again or the financial sector

are the banks in solid state the private

banks in particular so that they can

deal with the outside Financial agents

as well

uh first of all uh I think 300 billion

dollar is not a dream because turkey did

things uh be uh I suppose it's over a

period of over five years

I will just give you a figure in 2014

the Turkish there are assets of foreign

investors were 200 billion Turkish lira

now it's 25 billion uh Turkish lira in

the meantime most of the foreign inflows

has went back to other countries and

some of them of course eroded by the

price gaps so turkey can attract

foreign portfolios portfolio inflows and

I guess out of 300 billion dollars half

of it will be portfolio influence in

five years time of course the second

area that we can achieve and which

turkey did before is a kind of fdis like

m a case or kind of transactions turkey

can do that again when we when the rule

of law is there again re-established

re-establish and when the Democracy of

turkey or the Turkish approach to the

Western World will be seen I guess

turkey can attract uh FDI like that the

third part of course is the Greenfield

Investments turkey did actually did not

attract such kind of Investments ever so

we hope to do the attack again

does your program include measures to be

taken to attract Greenfield Investments

as well I I I personally think this will

need a longer term and we may attract

those

ftis the Greenfield fds in the second

term in the first term I guess will be

more liable to portfolio inflows and M A

type of transactions

um okay

um

what will the role of an upgraded and

updated

Customs Union B now you count on it yeah

do you have plans prepared for the kind

of Customs Union agreement you wish to

see yeah uh it is in our plans and we

believe that turkey is custom Universe

custom Union has to be updated

immediately because it's already 30

years and when you look look back on 30

years turkey did not attract a

Greenfield investments in the meantime

in Turkey of course I mean we have a lot

of mistakes there stability of Turkish

economy was not so long so I mean that's

that's an effect but a custom Union

should be upgraded because in the 30

years I mean the world has changed China

actually entered to the World Market

with a very powerful uh a tool so I

guess we need that custom units update

and in order to achieve that I of course

turkey will deliver the rule of love and

turkey will will be a democracy in the

meantime but that we need it you mean

accountability is going to be important

and I suppose we'll have to look back at

some of the steps or measures that were

taken

how do you propose to I mean there are

two or three critical institutions of

course that I suppose are important for

your policies what are you proposing to

do with the central bank or what kind of

Central Bank policies you will have

second will be the state Statistical

Institute I mean and and what would the

third one be uh the banking I mean

public Banks

uh first of all I think the first thing

we need is transparency in all those

corporate in all those corporations

because uh unfortunately turkey lost

transparency many years ago in central

bank balance sheet I mean

the interventions is not announced in

Turkish Statistical Institute

basket distribution of goods is not

announced is not announcing so we need

to make all of them more transparent we

have to appoint more components people

there and of course then we have to turn

back the economic policies to rational

area so I guess the autonomy and

Independence of those institutions are

first and foremost in your mind this is

what you yes after the appointments of

course I mean of course

naturally

okay uh finally

um

if on Sunday the elections is finalized

on the first round

there will be a transition period And if

we have to wait for another two weeks

for us to see who won the presidential

election because the parliament issue

will have been settled

do you fear things might deteriorate

yeah it may so is there any way to

prevent that yeah the way to prevent it

is of course to immediately announce the

cabinet

and the people appoint the people who

will be appointed to the bureaucratic

positions and we have to give clear

messages to the outstanding bureaucrats

that turkey

needs to be credible in the meantime

needs to stay credible in the meantime

and to continue what they do in in this

10 day or 14 days period but of course I

mean this is something we are talking

within each other with all parties and

this is something actually we are afraid

of at the moment but we will give clear

messages to those people well you but

you have two constituencies because

since you said we will need

inflow of currency effects to the

country therefore you'll have two

constituencies to appeal to one is of

course to domestic economic agencies and

private actors and the other is of

course International markets

do they try to fill you out uh or do

they have questions do you answer them

are they listening to what you're saying

and do you think they will be more

positively inclined towards turkey than

they have been in the last four to five

years especially after 6th of March when

the volatility in the nation's Alliance

has ended I mean we are getting a lot of

demand from the foreign investors okay I

personally made more than 20 25 meetings

in the mean in the meantime in in a

month's time so

I am I feel there is a big demand for

turkey I mean turkey will do a very

substantial come back to the financial

markets I'm pretty sure about that

because I guess the EM portfolio is very

much limited with South Africa and

Brazil at the moment because Ukraine and

Russia is out of the basket area as you

may know so I think the EM basket also

needs turkey and turkey needs a foreign

influence so it will be a win uh when to

win or for all parties well Dr Rota I

thank you very much for accepting my

invitation and I hope that we change the

government and when we change the

government you will also have a position

of responsibility in the management of

the economy good luck to you in advance

and thank you very much again for being

with us thank you thank you