AMERICAN BUSINESS FORUM IN TURKEY URGES DEEPER, FASTER REFORMS

World Bank Report “Doing Business” Reflects Positive Changes in 2021

ABFT Chairman Sukaya: “Turkey should aim to be in top 25 in 2021”

ISTANBUL—27 September—The American Business Forum in Turkey (ABFT) said today that Turkey deserves praise for achieving significant gains according to the newly released World Bank report “Doing Business”, but emphasized that a ranking of 57 out of 178 countries still leaves Turkey far from the top tier of the world’s most competitive and investment-friendly countries.

The World Bank cited Turkey’s significant progress in making the country more business friendly by cutting its corporate income tax from 30% to 20%, introducing electronic customs procedures, reducing the time to export by 6 days, and the time to import by 10.

The World Bank stated that Turkey ranks among the fastest reformers in large emerging markets, noting that investors find higher upside potential in economies that are reforming.

“The World Bank report highlights the important progress since last year in several critical areas affecting the ability of ABFT members to invest and increase employment in Turkey, said Galip Sukaya. “But we are not the only country implementing reforms in a highly competitive global economy. To compete and win, Turkey should implement deeper, faster reforms that will take us to the level of the top 25 business friendly countries in 2021”.

World Bank findings complement ABFT investor’s survey
ABFT pointed out that the World Bank report on the ease of doing business is an important part of the overall investment environment, but it only covers business regulations.

Other important factors, such as proximity to major markets, the quality of infrastructure services, the security of property from theft , including intellectual property rights, the transparency of government procurement and macro economic conditions are not accounted for in the survey.

Earlier this year, ABFT conducted a survey of leading US companies that concluded that while the Government has made major strides on improving the macro economy, major reforms would be necessary at the micro and sectoral levels.

“We hope that the new Government will take the World Bank findings seriously, as the Doing Business report notes that the most important reforms are generally accomplished in the first 18 months,” said ABFT Vice Chairman, Jeff Kemprecos. “The underlying advice of the ABFT and Doing Business reports is that if you are not reforming, you will be overtaken by a country that is reforming. ”