Turkey's top business association supports reforms

By Ugur Aslanhan

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish businesses fully support the reform package aimed at improving Turkey's investment environment, Erol Bilecik, chairman of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD), said on Thursday.

Those reforms, to which TUSIAD has contributed, should continue to be implemented rapidly, Bilecik told Anadolu Agency’s Finance Desk in Istanbul.

"We are magnificently pleased and offer our full support," Bilecik said.

He said members of TUSIAD held talks with numbers of institutions that are willing to invest in Turkey.

"We will be sharing several opinions, compiled from those talks, with our politicians," Bilecik said.

A reform package of over 100 articles -- -- designed by the Coordination Council for the Improvement of the Investment Environment (YOIKK) -- to improve investment in Turkey was sent to the parliament on Jan. 30.

"We will share it in the coming days," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said at the Coordination Committee for the Improvement of the Investment Environment 2017-2018 Reforms Publicity in capital Ankara on March 28.

The reforms aim to simplify the process of establishing companies, obtaining construction permits, foreign trade, conducting research and bringing in investments.

Eleven ministers, relevant bureaucrats, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, and other private sector organizations worked together to create the reform package.

Chairman Bilecik also noted that the double digit inflation rate in Turkey was the reason behind the loss of value of the Turkish lira and that the latter would stabilize should government implement a policy that curtail inflation.